Super Smash Bros: Armageddon
by OXYD
Summary: Several years have passed since the fall of Tabuu and the city of Smashopolis is living in peace. But when an evil organization called Black Shadow from a parallel universe invades Smashopolis and attempts to conquer the other worlds, it's up to the smashers and a space marine named Lloyd Florence from the same parallel universe as the Black Shadow to save them all.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey there folks, sorry for the SUPER long hiatus; I've got a new story here I think you'll enjoy. Now before I begin, I have a few things I wish to say to all my fans of Battle for Toon Town, the reason I deleted that story is because I've started running out of ideas for it, and also because I'm planning on possibly doing a complete remake of it someday. I'm also planning on writing and publishing some real novel's of my own, but that won't stop me from writing a new fanfiction, which is what I've got here. For all you fans of the Smash Bros series, and my fans too, I am proud to present this new story; Super Smash Bros: Armageddon. This story takes place several years after the Subspace Emissary story in Super Smash Bros: Brawl, and it features my OC hero's and villains; Lloyd Florence, Nelson Rivers, Ridley Farcus, and Erin Faust. I've also added a bunch of other crossover characters into the story as well; some of them you might know, and some you may not know.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters, Lloyd, Nelson, Faust, and Ridley are the only ones I own**

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Chapter 1: Subspace Distress Call

It was a warm summer afternoon in Smashopolis city and all the Super Smash Bros were gathered inside the enormous Smash Mansion game room relaxing after a big tournament. The Mario Bros were both playing _World of Warc_ _raft_ on their laptops, Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, Bowser, Kirby, Metaknight, King Dedede, and Waddle Dee were resting on the carpet watching _Star Trek: Voyager_ on their new HD TV. Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Mr. Game and Watch were playing Twister, and Princess Peach, Rosalina, Daisy, and Samus Aran sat at a table just outside the room on a balcony area chatting with each other.

Ike, Marth, Roy, Lyn, Snake, Wario, Ness, Lucas, Wolf, Sonic, Knuckles, Pokemon Trainer, Wii Fit Trainer, Olimar, Captain Falcon, Toon Link, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Fox, Krystal, Falco, Pichu, Lucario, Mewtwo, and Yoshi all stood outside at the enormous pool, laying on their pool chairs and swimming.

"Man, that was some tournament, I'm totally spent" Ike exclaimed as he lay on his pool chair next to Lyn, who was wearing a sexy fire engine red bikini and a pair of sunglasses.

"So am I," Lyn replied. "Your skills have really improved too, and so have your muscles; hitting the gym again, I see". Ike blushed when he heard her say that; he and Lyn had been dating for awhile and had grown quite close to each other as the years passed. Marth and Roy had dated Lyn a few times before, but they had never expressed any romantic feelings towards her like Ike did, so Lyn just remained as a close friend to Roy and Marth.

"Thanks, your looking good too; that bikini really looks good on you" Ike commented, and Lyn blushed with a flirty giggle.

"Hee hee, I'm glad you like it," Lyn giggled, sliding over onto Ike's large pool chair and embracing him, then she leaned her lips next to Ike's ear. "I really enjoy being with you, Ike. I've always loved you since the day we first met, and you've always been there for me".

"I really love you too, Lyn" Ike whispered back, and then their lips both met. From across the pool, Sonic and Knuckles both caught sight of them kissing as they rested on their own pool chairs.

"Ah, it's great to be in love, isn't it Knuckles?" Sonic said with a peaceful sigh.

"Yeah, you bet; Ike sure is lucky to have a girlfriend like Lyn" Knuckles agreed, taking a sip of lemonade in his chair.

"Pass it here, Lucas" Ness called out to his best friend on the other side of the pool.

"Here it is, Ness" Lucas replied and tossed Ness a beach ball, but Wario quickly caught it and tossed it over to Wolf.

"Nice try, boys" Wario taunted as Wolf tossed the ball over to Mewtwo.

"Hey, no fair" Lucas complained.

"Yeah, give it back" Ness snapped, folding his arms.

"Relax, we're just messing with you" Mewtwo assured them and tossed the ball back to Ness and Lucas. Just then, Wii Fit Trainer approached the pool in a sky blue bikini, then she stepped down into the water.

"You don't mind if I join you boys, do you?" Wii Fit Trainer asked.

"Um, no, not at all" Lucas replied, astounded by her gorgeous figure. Since Wii Fit Trainer always practiced yoga everyday, she had a super model figure such as an hourglass shaped figure, and a size D bust; Wii Fit Trainer was a person many men would dream of dating. Inside the mansion, Zelda had left the game room and entered the upper balcony through the stairs outside the game room. Link had been grabbing a soda out of the cooler in the corner of the room, so he didn't notice that Zelda had left the room until he turned around.

"Huh? Where'd Zelda go?" Link wondered, looking around curiously.

"If your looking for Princess Zelda, she left the room a minute ago," King Dedede informed Link. "I think she went up onto the upper balcony on the top floor".

"The upper balcony? Why did she go up there?" Link asked curiously.

"Beats me," King Dedede shrugged. "But she did look a bit distressed when I saw her expression. Zelda apparently seemed a bit upset about something".

"Hmm, that does seem a bit off," Link replied, heading for the exit. "I'd better go see what the matter is with Zelda". As it turned out, Zelda was currently having a frightening vision as she stood on the balcony at the top of Smash Mansion. From this high above, Zelda had a perfect view of the entire city of Smashopolis, and when she shut her eyes she saw the entire city in flames and ruins. The cause of it was currently unknown, but Zelda didn't need to know that this vision meant that something bad was probably going to happen.

"Zelda, what's going on? Why'd you come all the way up here?" a man's voice asked Zelda; she turned around and saw Link coming onto the balcony.

"Oh, Link; I didn't notice you coming" Zelda exclaimed, not expecting to see Link.

"Zelda, King Dedede told me that you looked upset before you left the game room. Is something wrong?" Link asked in concern.

"Yes, I had a horrible vision down in the game room and just now here on the balcony before you came up here" Zelda answered gravely.

"A vision? What kind of vision was it?" Link wondered.

"It was Smashopolis, it was on fire and hundreds of innocent lives were lost. I think something terrible is going to happen" Zelda answered, looking out at the city of Smashopolis which was still standing and undisturbed.

"That doesn't sound good," Link agreed, growing concerned about Zelda's horrifying vision. "We should speak to Master Hand about this; do you think it might be Tabuu that caused all that chaos?".

"No," Zelda shook her head. "Tabuu was destroyed in subspace over five years ago by all of us, so he couldn't be the cause of it. I'm not sure if this vision will be, or may be only, but there has to be a reason that I had this vision".

"This vision could be a warning of what might be yet to come, but either way, we've got to tell Master Hand about it; this is a very serious situation. If this vision you had is a vision of the future, then Smashopolis could be in horrible danger" Link guessed tensely. Zelda agreed and then they both headed back into the mansion to tell the other smashers about this terrifying vision, but when they got downstairs, they found Master Hand hovering in the middle of the game room speaking to the smashers about something; he turned abruptly towards the door when he saw Zelda and Link enter the room.

"Link, Zelda, there you are," Master Hand said. "I was wondering where you both were; I was just discussing the current situation with the others here before you came in".

"What situation?" Link asked curiously. Zelda saw Master Hand droop down a bit and the other smashers looked at each other with troubled expressions.

"Why does everyone look so troubled? What's going on here?" Zelda asked Master Hand, eager for an answer.

"R.O.B informed me about forty minutes ago that his long range sensors detected an unknown disturbance in Subspace about five hundred light years away from our world, and then an unidentified vessel emerged from it; it's headed towards our world right now as we speak" Master Hand explained.

"A vessel? Is it like an alien starship or something?" Zelda asked curiously.

"I'm not sure, but R.O.B told me that he also detected a very large amount of other unidentified crafts following behind the vessel out of the Subspace wormhole. We don't know where they came from, but it's most likely that they're hostile, and that's the main reason I've come here," Master Hand answered, hovering over to the window. "Smashopolis and all the other worlds have been at peace ever since that incident with Tabuu five years ago, and that was the first time we ever faced an invader from another dimension. If it hadn't been for you smashers, Tabuu might have enslaved Smashopolis and all the other worlds as well. If these vessels are invaders, then I'll be counting on you to defend our city once again from any assault they launch at us; you saved Smashopolis once, so I'm pretty sure that we can all save it again if it comes to it". Link and Zelda looked at each other as the other smashers agreed to protect Smashopolis, then they decided to tell Master Hand about the vision of the city in flames and ruins. But before they could even speak up, R.O.B the robot zoomed inside the game room, his eyes flashing rapidly.

"Master Hand; so glad I found you" R.O.B beeped, stopping in front of Master Hand.

"What is it, R.O.B?" Master Hand asked curiously.

"I just detected another spacial disturbance in Subspace about five minutes ago, and I also intercepted a distress call from a space vessel that emerged from it" R.O.B answered, extending a small speaker from the top of his head. "I'll play the distress message now; it sounds serious". R.O.B then pressed a set of buttons on his chest and then the message began playing, which sounded distorted.

 _"To... anyone out there... this is... (static) -yd Florence of- (static) requesting... immediate assistance...,"_ the male voice crackled over the speaker; the message was garbled. _"Ship... (static) badly damaged from... (static) -dow assault ships. Need... (static) -immediate... (static...)"._ The message ended in complete static and R.O.B deactivated his audio message system. All the smashers glanced at each other with perplexed expressions, as well as hints of concern.

"That doesn't sound good" Marth replied.

"No, not in the least," Master Hand replied. "R.O.B, try and get a fix on the location of where that message originated". R.O.B stuck his head up and a long range scanning antenna extended from the top of his head which flashed on the tip.

"I'm attempting to track the vessel that sent this message," R.O.B replied, rotating his head left and right, trying to track the vessel in distress. Yet after a few minutes, R.O.B lowered his antenna and then shook his head in disappointment. "I am unable to locate the vessel that sent the distress call; it has either been destroyed by the other vessels, or it has moved beyond my sensor range".

"Then what do we do? This Florence person sounds like he's in trouble" Krystal wondered.

"I could use my starship to search for the vessel that sent the message, then use the tractor beam to tow it down to Smashopolis" Samus suggested.

"I'd advise against doing that," Master Hand objected. "We don't know if those other space vessels are hostile or not, and if they are, you'd be greatly outnumbered".

"But we can't just forget about that vessel in distress; the pilot could be badly hurt from whatever happened to him. We've got to find a way to help him" Samus protested.

"Yeah, we gotta help him" Knuckles agreed. Master Hand knew that once the smashers made a decision, they always stuck to it, so there was no stopping them.

"Very well, but I still think your plan is a bad idea" Master Hand said in defeat.

"It's no problem, I can have my friend Slippy Toad install some cloaking devices into my teams Arwings and Samus's starship so that those other ships won't detect us when we search for the damaged vessel that sent the distress message" Fox replied.

"Yeah, that sounds like a wise idea; that could work" Falco agreed.

"All right then," Fox replied. "I'll contact Slippy and inform him of the situation and then he can install the cloaking devices into our ships". With that being said, Fox, Samus, and Falco left the room to fetch their ships while Master Hand bid them farewell for now.

...

...

"My Lord, we're approaching the destination; we should be arriving in about five hours" Commander Erin Faust reported on the bridge of the Black Shadow mothership, the _Death's Head._

"Has that meddlesome Lloyd Florence been taken care of?" the General of the _Death's Head_ asked in a cybernetic voice.

"Yes, Lord Ridley; his ship was lost in the asteroid field way back there and there's no sign of him on our sensors. He's most likely been destroyed or crippled to the point of no return" Faust replied, checking his console screen at his post.

"Good," Ridley said, standing up from the captain's chair. "Continue on our present course towards the designated planet; we shall deploy our assault forces there and capture the city of Smashopolis, then we shall search for the so called "Key To The Seven Worlds".

"Yes, General Ridley" Faust nodded and then he ordered the navigational officers to continue on their present course towards the planet Earth, or rather, an alternate version of Earth that would soon fall victim to the Black Shadow organization. Ever since they had been overthrown back in their own universe, the Black Shadow organization had fled inside a blackhole where they ended up in a parallel universe by chance.

For the last fifteen years, the Black Shadow organization had rebuilt their crippled fleet by stockpiling new weapons, warships, and even with the use of slave laborers obtained from world's they had conquered or from various alien ships they looted in this other universe. Before the Black Shadow organization had fled to this parallel universe, they had been defeated by the United Space Federation back in their own universe lead by Captain Lloyd Florence of the _S.S Daphne._ Lloyd's fleet had fought off the Black Shadow organization when they had attempted to enslave a human occupied city on an earth-like planet known as Avalon Prime in a binary system known as the Exodus system, the largest planet in the United Space Federation.

The Black Shadow had already succeeded in capturing several other humanoid alien worlds at the time and enslaving them, but when the United Space Federation caught word of this from Captain Lloyd Florence of the _S.S Daphne_ , they retaliated with their fleet of super dreadnaughts and battleships and forced the Black Shadow organization to retreat from the Exodus system with a skeleton fleet of five battle cruisers, one dreadnaught, and their super dreadnaught mothership, the _Death's Head_. As Ridley and his crippled fleet of space terrorists fled into hyperspace, followed by Lloyd and his fleet, they all got caught inside a blackhole which transported them all to a parallel universe, which they had not yet been aware of until a few days later.

Several days after being sucked into the blackhole, the Black Shadow organization eventually discovered that they had been transported to an alternate universe when they found some of the solar systems and galaxies in their star charts didn't show up on their galaxy maps. Desperately trying to find a way to get back to their own universe, the Black Shadow began to search for resources to resupply themselves after facing near defeat by the United Space Federation.

To do this, they began searching for habitual worlds to colonize in various solar systems, and they found many of them inhabited by other humanoid alien species. These worlds were easily conquered by the Black Shadow since most of species technology was old and outdated, allowing the Black Shadow to subdue the species into submission. For fifteen years, the Black Shadow had conquered world after world to make their fleet even stronger than before. With the various alien technologies the Black Shadow acquired from conquered planets, they repaired and refit all of their ships, and even built new ones using slave laborers from various conquered races.

One particular race was a humanoid alien race called the Balloonians from the conquered planet known as Balloonia Prime, which was a name that the Black Shadow found very odd and unusual. No one really knew why these aliens were called Balloonians, but many Black Shadow scientists had several theories that suggested why that was; one was for the fact that Balloonia Prime was a planet with no surface, only an atmosphere composed of oxygen and nitrogen, and a large city in the sky held up with antigravity devices and giant solar balloons.

One theory deemed most possible was that the Balloonians had heads with a balloon like shape, which is most likely the reason that the aliens were called Balloonians. Their world was once peaceful until Ridley and his fleet conquered Balloonia Prime and enslaved the Balloonians, allowing them to live only if they swore their undying loyalty to the Black Shadow organization. If they refused, Ridley would destroy their world using the _Death's Head_ super photonic laser cannons which were capable of incinerating the entire atmosphere of a planet.

Left with no other choice, Balloonia Prime now became a slave planet to the Black Shadow along with over 85 other inhabited planets. All the while as the years went by, the Black Shadow organization kept trying to find a way to return to their own universe and after fifteen years, they finally found a way back to their universe using an alien device called the Transwarp Machine, which made the Black Shadow ships capable of interdimensional travel. But before the Black Shadow could test it, Lloyd and his fleet of fifteen battle cruisers ambushed them in a binary system some hundreds of light years away.

The Transwarp Machine was destroyed in battle with Lloyd's fleet, but the Black Shadow fleet easily survived with only minor damage to their battleships. Since the Black Shadow organization had far stronger technology and slave races backing them up, they easily overpowered and destroyed Lloyd's entire fleet. Lloyd's small luxury battleship, the _S.S Daphne_ , had been presumed destroyed when it vanished from the Black Shadow fleets sensors.

However, unknown to the Black Shadow organization and even Ridley himself, Lloyd was still alive and his ship intact, but critically damaged in an uncharted asteroid field closet to the alternate Sol system where Earth was. Lloyd had managed to pilot his damaged starship into the asteroid field where he'd be safe from sensor range by enemy vessels, which was where he had sent out a distress message before moving into the asteroid field.

Lloyd's ship was currently floating in orbit with the asteroid field, badly damaged from battle with the Black Shadow fleet. Inside the ship on the bridge, Lloyd lay wounded near the main control console, praying that his distress call got through to any planet in range of his ships sensors. His space marine uniform was tattered, partly shredded, and drenched in blood from the debris that had hit him when the ship had taken damage from the battle against the Black Shadow fleet.

Warning alarms were going off all through the ship as Lloyd lay on the floor, filled with sorrow and fear. He had just lost his entire fleet to the Black Shadow, including Captain Lunara Moonshine, the woman he had fallen in love with; she had been on one of the battleships that had been destroyed by the _Death's Head_. Lloyd had promised to marry her after defeating the Black Shadow, and so had Lunara, but that could would never happen now. Lloyd vowed to make the Black Shadow pay for what they had done if he ever got out of this alive, and he'd not rest until Ridley's head was on a silver platter.

...

...

Several hours later down at the Smash Dry Dock located a block away from the Smash Mansion, Slippy Toad had finished installing the cloaking devices into the Arwings and Samus Aran's starship. Falco, Fox, Peppy, Krystal, and Samus had also added several new weapons modifications to their ships in case they were forced into a confrontation with the hostile vessels in space.

"Ah, there we go; the cloaking devices are fully installed and operational for our rescue mission," Slippy announced, closing the G-device compartment on his Arwing. "I just need to test them to make sure there are no problems with the systems when the cloaking devices are engaged". A few minutes later, the testing was completed and all of the Arwing's and Samus's starship cloaked successfully.

"They're all working fine; looks like we can begin our rescue mission" Krystal replied, climbing out of her Arwing. Samus emerged from her ship in her yellow and orange colored power suit, fully ready for the mission.

"My power suit is fully charged and operational," she reported, then turned to Fox. "Your in charge of this mission, right?".

"No, Master Hand told me that he's placed you in charge of the rescue mission; since your the best experienced in bounty hunting, Master Hand wants you to lead the rescue mission" Fox replied. Samus felt honored to lead a rescue mission after so long; it had been a long time since she had lead a rescue mission and she couldn't have been happier to lead one again.

"All right then," Samus announced. "Fuel up your ships and let's get going".

...

...

Meanwhile down in the Smashopolis Park, Lucas sat in the field of sunflowers and gazed up at the evening sky still slightly lit by the sunset, thinking of his deceased mother Hinawa. It had been approximately seven years since the death of his mother and his brother Claus, and Lucas had never been able to get over it even after all this time; Lucas was now sixteen years old, a few years older than Ness. The sunflowers reminded Lucas of that time during his quest for the Seven Needles when he had seen the spirit of his mother in a large field of sunflowers similar to the ones in Smashopolis Park.

Hinawa's spirit had lead Lucas out of the sunflower field back on Nowheres Island during his quest after he had fallen out of a pigmask ship where he then landed into a bale of hay. Lucas glanced down at his Franklin badge that Claus had handed to him right before he committed suicide by reflecting a PK Thunder blast off of the badge, causing it to strike Claus in the chest and kill him.

Lucas clenched his eyes tightly and shook his head slowly, clutching the Franklin badge tightly against his chest, filled with rage when he thought of his brother. The last time he had seen Claus was at his mother's funeral before he ran off to find the mechanical Drago that killed his mother, but Lucas knew that it wasn't that Dragos fault that caused it to kill Hinawa. No, the real person behind his mother's death was the pure evil mastermind of the pigmask army, Porky Minch.

Lucas felt his anger grow stronger just by thinking of that evil bastard; it was Porky Minch that turned that innocent Drago into a mechanical monster and then brainwashed it into killing innocent people, like his mother. Porky was also responsible for kidnapping Lucas's brother and then refitting him into a brainwashed cyborg who had been programmed to try and take the Seven Needles before Lucas and his friends could get them.

It was all Porky's fault that Lucas's life had been depressing, and he had hoped that by awakening the Dragon back in his own world, Lucas could resurrect his mother and Claus from the dead. But that flame of hope died the moment the Dragon told Lucas that despite being as powerful a being he was, he did not have the power over life and death. Thus forth, Hinawa and Claus could never be resurrected from their death, and this made Lucas even more depressed than he'd ever been in his life.

Even though he had made friends with all of the smashers in Smashopolis back when he became a member of the Smash Bros, Lucas could never put the deaths of his mother and brother behind him; it haunted him up to this very day. There were a few times that he imagined killing Porky out of vengeance, such as the time he had fought him five years ago when Tabuu invaded Subspace and back in New Pork City so long ago. If it hadn't been for that Super Safe Capsule, Lucas just might have gotten the chance to kill Porky seven years ago, but he didn't.

After Tabuu had been destroyed and order restored to the world's, Porky was taken into custody by the government and placed into a maximum security prison for life. Lucas remembered pleading to the government for them to send Porky off to death row instead of prison, but the court had already charged him with second degree murder instead of first degree murder, so Porky was sentenced to life in prison instead of death. Lucas knew that even though Porky would never be free again to harm others, he could never feel satisfied knowing that Porky was still alive; he didn't deserve to live after all the evil he had committed in the past.

But what the court had decided was final, so there was nothing anyone could do about it; Porky was taken to the Smash Prison and placed in a maximum security prison cell specially designed by the government to ensure no chance of escape. Snapping back to the present, Lucas felt his anger boil over when he thought of Porky still alive and rotting in his cell, then he stood up and glared over at a nearby tree.

"PK THUNDER OMEGA!" Lucas roared angrily, blasting the tree into pieces of smoking wood with an extremely powerful bolt of lightning; Lucas just stood there, staring at the burning remains of the tree and panting slowly with anger.

Several other bystanders murmured at each other with expressions of shock and confusion from seeing Lucas blast a tree to pieces with PSI, but their attention turned to the sky as they saw the Star Fox teams Arwings and Samus Aran's starship headed up high in the sky and into space to search for the vessel that called for help. Lucas just sighed sadly and sat back down on the park bench, feeling sleepy; he laid down on the bench and shut his eyes, falling into a deep sleep, dreaming of his mother and Claus.

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 **A/N: That completes the first chapter of my new story. I hope all you fans of Super Smash Bros like the first chapter, cause there's more to come soon. But just to let you folks know, I'm limiting my fanfiction time since I'm currently writing out plots to one of my novels I'm planning to write, and I'll be signing up for some collage classes soon, so updates may be delayed. But don't worry, I'll be continuing this story soon enough.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey folks, my next chapter is finally up. Samus and the Star Fox team finally make it to the asteroid field where Samus recovers a badly injured Lloyd Florence from inside his ship, the _S.S Daphne._ Once onboard Samus's ship, Lloyd tells his long story to her... Read on and review.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters, Lloyd, Nelson, and the Black Shadow organization characters are the only ones I own.**

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Chapter 2: Lloyd Florence

"All ships scan for any damaged space vessels within several light years" Samus ordered the Arwings following close behind her ship as they left their solar system and headed out into deep space.

"We're scanning with long range sensors now" Fox reported over his com system, then his team scanned for any traces of the source that sent out the distress call. For the next two minutes, Samus and the others attempted to track down the source of the distress call, but they couldn't find anything.

"No trace of the vessel that sent the distress call; it must be beyond our sensor range" Falco informed in disappointment.

"That's true, and R.O.B did say that he couldn't track the vessel either. That means that the ship was either destroyed by enemy vessels, or got lost somewhere where our ships sensors can't reach it" Krystal guessed.

"Then we've got to search the last place where the ship sent out its distress call; it was sent from five hundred light years away in a binary system called Klar, so we should probably check there" Peppy suggested.

"But R.O.B said that he couldn't track the damaged vessel, and from what we heard in that distress call, those other vessels sound hostile. Heading towards their point of entry from Subspace could be very dangerous" Fox protested.

"That's what our cloaking devices are for," Samus reminded. "If we're going to find the vessel in distress, we'll need to check the Klar system for any signs of damaged ships. We'll use our cloaking devices to avoid being seen, so let's set a course for the Klar system and head there at maximum warp speed".

"Whatever you say, Samus; I just hope you know what your doing" Falco replied in a stubborn tone of voice. With that being said, the rescue team activated their hyperdrives and blasted off into hyperspace.

"What's our ETA at the Klar system?" Fox asked Samus as they all flew through Subspace.

"About an hour at our current warp speed; we're at maximum warp" Samus replied, checking her ships scanners for any sign of life out there in normal space.

"An hour?! That's quite a long time" Krystal exclaimed.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it" Falco inquired stubbornly.

"Lets just stop all this bickering and focus on the mission," Peppy snapped, growing tired of all the arguing. "We came out here to rescue a space pilot who, for all we know, might be seriously hurt and dying. We're never going to get anywhere if we keep bickering with each other".

"He's right, we have a mission to accomplish, so let's just be patient" Fox agreed.

...

...

Meanwhile several light years away, the _Death's Head_ had left Subspace and had just entered the Sol system near planet Pluto along with the rest of the Black Shadow fleet.

"Lord Ridley, we've left Subspace and are currently on course towards Earth; the fleet reports all status normal" Faust reported, checking their location.

"Good," the evil cyborg General replied, gazing at the enormous viewscreen in front of him. "What's are ETA to Earth at full impulse?".

"Five days," Faust replied. "If we go to Warp 2, we would arrive there in twelve hours".

"No, we'll travel to Earth at maximum impulse; we've already been traveling through Subspace at maximum warp for five days, save for the unexpected encounter with Captain Florence and his fleet, and the _Death's Heads_ FLT (faster than light) traveling engines need time to recharge. If we use the FTL traveling engines any longer than we have been, we'll exhaust the power cells which will place us in a very difficult situation; FTL power cells take hours to recharge," Ridley objected. "Continue on our course to Earth at full impulse".

"Yes, Lord Ridley" Faust replied, notifying the fleet to follow the _Death's Head_ at full impulse.

"Soon, I'll have this key to the Seven Worlds, and then we can finally find a way back to our own universe and deal with unfinished business" Ridley mused softly as the _Death's Head_ continued towards Earth, ready to conquer a new world, and not just any world; their world, only in another reality.

...

...

"Lucas, wake up" Ness said, shaking his friend laying on the park bench; Lucas stirred and then he woke up.

"Huh... what...," Lucas muttered in a drowsy voice, rubbing his eyes and sitting up on the park bench. "Ness? What is it?". Lucas saw that Donkey Kong and his pals, Diddy Kong, Lanky Kong, Tiny Kong, and Chunky Kong were with Ness, looking relieved to see him.

"Me and the Kongs were looking everywhere for you; we thought you got lost or something" Ness said, sounding relieved to see his friend.

"Whoa, this tree looks like it was blown to pieces; I wonder what happened to it" Donkey Kong wondered as he observed the tree that Lucas had blasted to pieces with PK Thunder.

"Looks like it got hit by a bomb or something" Tiny Kong guessed, gazing at the charred remains of the tree stump. Ness took a better look at the burned stump, then at Lucas, who had a depressed and somewhat anxious expression on his face; he knew what the cause of this was.

"Lucas, did you do this?" Ness asked in concern.

"No, it was like this when I came here" Lucas lied, trying to sound casual.

"Chunky don't believe that" Chunky Kong replied in disbelief.

"Yeah, I came through the park earlier today and I don't remember seeing this tree like this" Diddy Kong agreed.

"I have to agree with the Kong's, Lucas; I don't remember seeing this tree in pieces like the last time I was here," Ness said, growing concerned about Lucas. "I've known you for years and I know that expression and that mood your in, and I know when your lying. Why did you do this, Lucas? What's going on here?".

"I said I didn't do this," Lucas snapped, getting up from the bench. "So just get off my damn back and stop bothering me! My problems are none of your business!". He started walking away, but Ness roughly stopped him by grabbing his shoulders.

"No, this isn't like you, Lucas," Ness insisted harshly. "I _know_ it was you that destroyed that tree, because I sensed traces of PSI fragments in the charred remains of the tree, so stop lying to me and tell me why you did that! Your obviously in trouble, so tell me". Lucas violently pushed Ness away and then he glared at him and the Kong's.

"I SAID it's not any of your business! This is my own personal problem, so just get the hell out of my face and give me some space!" Lucas yelled angrily, then he turned away and stormed off, leaving Ness and the Kong's alone and perplexed.

"Gee, he looks blue" Donkey Kong replied, feeling worried.

"I'd say he's blonde" Lanky Kong pointed out.

"No, no, I mean he's depressed" Donkey Kong corrected.

"Oh" Lanky muttered.

"Why do you suppose he's so upset, Ness?" Tiny Kong asked in concern.

"I'm not sure, but he hasn't been himself ever since..." Ness paused when he remembered that day in the Smashopolis Courthouse when his rival Porky Minch was tried for his crimes against the citizens of Nowheres Island and Eagleland; Lucas had been furious when Porky had been sentenced to life in prison instead of death. Since then, Lucas had always been haunted by the fact that the person who had been responsible for the death's of his mother and Claus was still alive, despite the fact that Porky was locked up for the rest of his days.

"Since when?" Donkey Kong asked.

"Five years ago after the incident with Tabuu, Porky escaped the Super Safe Capsule and tried to kill Lucas and me, but we eventually defeated him and had him arrested," Ness explained. "When Porky was taken to court and trialed for the crimes he committed against Eagleland and Tazmily, the court decided to rule out execution on Porky since he never actually killed anyone. But since Porky did in fact use innocent people under mind control and those mechanical chimeras to kill anyone who opposed him and his pigmask army, the court charged him with accessory to murder in the second degree and sentenced him to life in the Smashopolis Prison. I remember Lucas pleading to the judge to have him executed, but the police just dragged him out cursing angrily at the whole court for keeping Porky alive; he's never gotten over it".

"Ah yeah, I remember hearing Lucas's father and friends talking about it the last time they visited Smash Mansion; I can't blame Lucas. If one of my best friends were killed by some crazy psycho and the court kept him off death row, I'd be depressed too" Donkey Kong recalled.

"So would Chunky" Chunky Kong agreed.

"I just wish we could help him somehow" Tiny Kong replied sadly.

"I'll speak with him; I'm his closest friend, and he'll listen to me," Ness said, heading down the dirt path. "I'll head back to Smash Mansion and speak with Lucas. You and your friends should get going too since its almost 11:00 PM".

"Yeah, I'm getting a bit drowsy out here; let's get back to Smash Mansion" Donkey Kong said and then he and the other Kong's headed back for Smash Mansion.

...

...

About an hour later, Samus and the Star Fox team exited Subspace and entered the Klar system where they found themselves near a large ice planet; the two suns shined brightly far away.

"It looks like we're near the farthest planet in the Klar system; my sensors are detecting five other planets in this system." Samus reported, gazing at the enormous ice planet.

"Is there any sign of the ship that sent the distress call?" Slippy wondered.

"Hmm, I'm not picking up any ships from within several light years, or in this binary system" Samus replied in a puzzled tone.

"It may be possible that the damaged ship might have left the Klar system along with the other ships that R.O.B detected hours ago; it's been a whole day since we got the distress message after all" Fox suggested.

"Then that means they could be anywhere by now" Krystal concluded.

"Wait a sec," Falco said suddenly, checking his long range scanner. "My long range sensors are picking up a faint signal emitting from an uncharted asteroid field about four light years away from here; I think it's the ship in distress".

"Yeah, mine are too" Peppy added, noticing a yellow light flashing on his long range scanner.

"Samus, check your long range sensors and see if this signal is showing up on your sensors too" Fox informed.

"Yes, it is," Samus replied, seeing a yellow light on her sensor screen as well. "Set a course for the uncharted asteroid field and jump to hyperspace on my command".

"Aye, our FTL engines are powered up and ready," Fox informed, then laid in the desired course. "Course laid in, Samus".

"Good, engage at maximum warp" Samus ordered, then she and the others all entered hyperspace at maximum warp. As the ship's flew through Subspace, Samus held high hopes that whoever this person was that sent the distress call was still alive; it had been almost ten hours since R.O.B intercepted the distress call, and the pilot could be dead for all she knew. About ten minutes later, Samus and the others arrived at the uncharted asteroid field surrounded by hundreds of asteroids.

"Scan the field for any ships within range of our sensors and avoid hitting the asteroids" Samus commanded cautiously. Fox and his team began flying around the asteroid field, scanning for any other ship within sensor range while avoiding the asteroids floating around them. It was very difficult to find the source of the distress signal inside the asteroid field because the asteroids interfered with their sensor systems.

"Can you find the source of the distress signal anywhere in this field?" Krystal asked Samus as she tried to get a positive reading on her scanner.

"I'm trying, but all these asteroids are interfering with my sensors, so it's hard to get a positive reading on my scanner" Samus replied in frustration. They all continued searching the asteroid field for any signs of life, but there seemed to be no sign of life anywhere out in the field... or so they thought.

"Guys, I think I found something on my scanner" Falco announced suddenly.

"What is it? I still can't get a good reading on mine" Peppy asked, still trying to get a clear reading on his scanner.

"It appears to be a small unidentified warship, about seventy meters long and wide, and its heavily damaged; there's also one human life form aboard, male" Falco reported.

"That's it! This must be the ship that sent the distress call," Samus realized. "What's the status of the pilot?". Falco checked the readings on his scanner, then frowned.

"Very erratic; he's been badly hurt and lost quite a bit of blood" he reported grimly.

"Where's the ship? If it's that bad, then we have to find it right away or the pilot may not make it" Samus asked, not wanting to waste anymore time.

"About a hundred meters from here; we'd better hurry if we're going to save the pilot and his ship" Falco replied and then zoomed ahead, moving out of the way of oncoming asteroids.

"I've got a fix on the ship, let's go" Samus announced, then fired up her ships thrusters.

"Right behind you, Samus" Falco replied, following her ship along with the others. As they all moved through the asteroid field, they kept an eye out for the damaged ship, which soon came into view a minute later.

"There it is! We found it" Krystal pointed out. Now that the ship was in full view, Samus and the others were able to get a much better look at it. It's design somewhat resembled a manta ray with two gun turrets extended from the front left and right side of the wings, which had large rips and tears in them. Two impulse engines could be seen from the backs of the left and right wings of the ship, along with two damaged FTL engines mounted on the top of the wings and a rotating gun turret on the top of the ship's middle.

Most of the ship's armor had been badly damaged and a small piece of the ship's tail had been blown off by what the group guessed to either be the other unidentified vessels R.O.B detected, or perhaps a passing asteroid. Smoke and sparks could be seen floating out from parts of the holes in the ship's armor.

"Fox, can you get a reading on this ships registration?" Samus asked Fox.

"Yeah, I got it," Fox reported as the registration came up on his screen. "The ship's name is _S.S Daphne,_ and it's registration code is SE-429. That's all I can get since the ship's so damaged".

"Where do you think this ship came from? It's not like any space vessel I've ever seen" Slippy wondered curiously.

"No idea, but it's certainly not from planet Corneria; that much I do know" Fox answered.

"Someone try hailing it" peppy suggested. Samus opened her ships hailing frequencies and then spoke up.

"Space vessel _S.S Daphne,_ this is Samus Aran of the G.F Gunship; I've intercepted your distress call. If you can hear me, respond" Samus called out; she waited, but there was no reply. "No response".

"The pilots probably too badly hurt to answer, or he could be unconscious" Falco guessed.

"Then there's only one way to find out," Samus declared. "I'm going to have to go over onto that ship to help the pilot".

"What about the ship? What do we do with it once you return?" Slippy asked.

"I'll use my ships tractor beam to tow it back to Smashopolis once I bring the pilot on my ship for medical attention" Samus replied, then she slipped her power suit helmet on and set her ship to autopilot. She then walked into her ships transporter and then programmed it to teleport her onto the bridge of the _Daphne._ The transporter then activated and then transported Samus onto the damaged ship where she found the bridge covered in debris from when the ship was attacked by supposedly those other vessels.

Console screens flickered and fizzled with static and sparks, and some of them had been shattered. Alarms were going off as Samus looked all around the damaged bridge in hopes of finding the ship's pilot, but with all the debris in the way, it was hard to find anything.

 _"Samus, what do you see over there? Did you find the pilot?"_ Krystal asked over Samus's comlink.

"No, not yet, but he's definitely on this ship somewhere; my suits scanner is picking up signs of human life onboard" Samus replied as she scanned the bridge with her suits radar.

 _"Your right about that, my ships scanner is also reading that there are two life forms onboard; you and the pilot"_ Fox confirmed over the comlink. Samus was about to leave the bridge when she saw something stir underneath a nearby console, then she heard something groan under it.

"Guys, I think I just found the pilot; he's laying under one of the consoles on the bridge" Samus informed as she looked under the console and found the pilot barely conscious from his injuries; she gently pulled him out from under the console and inspected him. He appeared to be an American in his late twenties and had black military style cut hair and a muscular build. Samus also saw that he wore a black military uniform which was tattered and dirty from the debris, and he was also bleeding from several deep wounds in his chest, arms, and legs. Samus then noticed a nametag on the right side of his uniform which said "Lloyd J. Florence".

 _"You found the pilot?"_ Fox asked over Samus's comlink.

"Yeah, I just found him under one of the control consoles; his name is Lloyd Florence and he's in bad shape" Samus replied.

 _"How bad are his injuries?"_ Fox asked.

"He's got several deep cut wounds on his chest, arms, and legs which will need stitching and he's lost a lot of blood. Lloyd's going to need medical attention right away or he may not make on our way back to Smashopolis" Samus explained.

 _"Where are we supposed to get medical attention? We're out in the middle of deep space in some unknown asteroid field"_ Krystal wondered in a perplexed tone of voice.

"My ship has a medical bay; I can treat most of Lloyd's physical wounds, but if he has any internal wounds, we'll have to wait until we return to Smashopolis where they can be treated at the Smashopolis Hospital" Samus explained.

 _"What about Lloyd's ship? How are we going to take it back with us?"_ Fox asked curiously.

"I'll use my ships tractor beam to tow it back to Smashopolis," Samus replied as she then signaled her ship to teleport her and Lloyd over to the medical bay. "I'll be signing off for now until I get back to the bridge of my ship; keep watch over this area until you hear from me again, Samus out". She and Lloyd both vanished from the bridge of the _Daphne_ as her gunship transported them onto the medical bay where she quickly and gently set Lloyd down on a diagnostic medical bed.

Samus then removed her power suit and placed it back inside its recharging chamber near two other diagnostic medical beds, then she began tending to Lloyd, who began to regain consciousness as Samus opened up the front of his uniform to inspect his wounds.

"W-where... am I? What is... this?" Lloyd asked weakly, trying to sit up, but Samus gently pressed her hand on Lloyd's chest and stopped him.

"Try not to move; you've got a broken leg and have lost a lot of blood from your cut wounds" Samus advised as she checked the diagnostic scanner next to the bed which displayed the status of Lloyd's body.

"Who... who are you? Where am I?" Lloyd asked, wondering who this woman in the blue space suit was.

"I'm Samus Aran; your on my starship. Me and my friends intercepted your distress call and came out here in response to it" Samus answered; Lloyd sighed weakly in relief.

"Thank God! I thought I was done for out there" he sighed with relief as Samus prepared some medical stitching equipment and alcohol wipes to clean and stitch his wounds.

"So did we," Samus replied as she readied the stitching tools. "Try and hold still, this may sting a bit". Lloyd then watched as she began cleaning his wounds with the alcohol wipes, which stung badly.

"Ughh, that burns!" He groaned as Samus cleaned his wounds.

"I'm sorry, just try and hold still and relax; I've got to stitch your wounds up before they bleed even more and become infected," Samus apologized calmly as she cleaned his wounds. "How did you end up like this? What happened out there with your ship?".

"It... it was the Black Shadow; they're the ones who attacked me. It took everything I had just to escape out into the asteroid field" Lloyd replied with hints of anger in his voice.

"Who's this Black Shadow? And where are you from?" Samus asked curiously as she began stitching up Lloyd's wounds.

"It's a long story, so I'll start from the beginning" Lloyd started; he began to explain that the Black Shadow was a dangerous space pirate organization that had been responsible for conquering dozens of innocent planets and murdering those who dared to stand against them. He and the Black Shadow organization had come from alternate reality where humanity had formed a peaceful union known as the United Space Federation in the year 2110 A.D and ventured out among the stars and had colonized other earth like planets, and had even made first contact with a few humanoid alien races during their voyages in spaces.

However, decades later after the USF was founded, an evil organization of human space criminals known as Black Shadow had begun conquering various worlds colonized by the USF with a fleet of assault cruisers and dreadnaughts. At the time, the USF military fleet had been caught completely off guard, so they had not been prepared when the Black Shadow organization began attacking them; as a result, the USF military fleet was reduced to practically nothing once the Black Shadow was through attacking them. Around 2145, the Black Shadow had already taken full control of fifty nine planets, including Earth, and enslaved their human inhabitants, some of them were humanoid alien planets; many of them resisted and were executed for it.

Those who managed to escape their conquered home planets fled to an uncharted planet called Parthenia in a binary system halfway across the milky way galaxy where the Black Shadow wouldn't detect them; Lloyd and several surviving USF military ships were among them. Once the survivors arrived at Parthenia after a month of traveling at maximum warp, they found that the planet was inhabited by beautiful humanoid aliens known as Parthenians.

The USF and the other survivors explained their situation to the Parthenians and and then requested an alliance with them, which they agreed to. As the months passed, the USF and the survivors all worked together to reinforce their fleets with the help of the Parthenians. Lloyd then explained how he eventually met and fell in love with a beautiful Parthenian woman named Lunara Moonshine, who later joined the USF military and became the captain of a new USF battleship, the _Inquisitor._ They had both first met when Lloyd rescued Lunara from a group of Parthenian rebels who were against the alliance with the humans; as time went by, they eventually formed a romantic relationship with each other and then made love on the _S.S_ _Daphne._ About two years later in the summer of 2147, Lloyd had joined the USF military and became a full fledged space marine, along with Lunara and the survivors.

By this time, the USF had rebuilt their fleet with new battleships, battlecruisers, and even powerful dreadnaughts; Lloyd even refit the _Daphne_ into a small luxury class warship. But several months after the fleet had commissioned their new ships, terror struck; the Black Shadow organization had found Parthenia! As it turned out, the Black Shadow had been searching for several years for the survivors that had escaped the war back in 2145, and after venturing halfway across the galaxy, their long range sensors detected the USF survivors and the others who had also escaped with them.

A massive war then broke out over Parthenia as the USF and the Parthenians fought to defeat the Black Shadow and keep them from conquering their world. After a long battle between the two sides, the Black Shadow conceded defeat and then fled to the Exodus system, a binary solar system closet to Alpha Centauri. There they planned to conquer one of the largest earth like planets in the Exodus system called Avalon Prime.

Lloyd, now an acting General, lead the USF to Avalon Prime and then quickly crushed the Black Shadow organizations assault forces lead by the evil General Ridley Farcus and his super dreadnaught mothership, the _Death's Head_. There were heavy casualties on both sides, but because they had the help of the survivors and the Parthenians, the Black Shadow was easily overpowered and defeated. The remaining Black Shadow ships and the heavily damaged _Death's Head_ quickly retreated into deep space where the USF followed them and attempted to crush the remaining Black Shadow forces.

However, a supernova occurred in a nearby solar system which caused a blackhole to form, which then pulled in the Black Shadow organizations skeleton fleet along with Lloyd's ship and the USF. When the emerged from the blackhole, the Black Shadow and the USF had found themselves in two different locations; the Black Shadow had emerged in the Delta Quadrant of the milky way, and the USF found themselves in the Beta Quadrant about 50,000 light years away from the Black Shadow.

The USF never heard from the Black Shadow again after that day; they had been presumed destroyed from the blackhole. Shortly after the blackhole incident, the USF fleet attempted to locate their position, where they found that most of the planet's and stars did not register as explored in their star charts. They soon discovered that the quantum signatures of their ships and themselves didn't match the quantum signatures of everything in this unknown region of space, which began to confuse them all.

After looking further into this mystery, the USF concluded that the blackhole had not only transported them into another region of space, but also a completely different universe as well. When Lloyd and the USF fleet figured this out, they tried to find ways of returning to their own universe while also readying themselves for any possible Black Shadow attacks since there was a strong possibility that the Black Shadow organization might have ended up in this reality as well.

After searching for a few days, the USF found an earth like planet in an uncharted and unknown binary solar system, which they named Genesis, and began colonizing it. As the years passed, the USF continued to try and find a way to return to their own universe while at the same time, exploring other regions of space in this new and mysterious reality. Lloyd was eventually relieved of acting General by a newly elected General named Nelson Rivers, a long time friend of his, which gave Lloyd a chance to explore this universe in his own ship.

Lunara had stayed behind on Genesis to continue her duties in the USF military with a promise that she and Lloyd would marry once he returned. For fifteen years, Lloyd had explored and charted many new regions of space, and even made friends and a few enemies along the way with various alien races. And then finally in the year 2162, several weeks before he met Samus, Lloyd finally returned home to Genesis. But when he finally reached Genesis, Lloyd was greeted by a terrifying sight; it was under attack by two Black Shadow battlecruisers and two other alien warships assisting them.

The USF eventually defeated the Black Shadow battlecruisers and destroyed the two alien warships assisting them with their assault on Genesis. Lloyd had also managed to capture the captain of one of the Black Shadow battlecruisers using his ships transporter right before it was destroyed by the USF. Once Lloyd turned him over to the USF, the captain was interrogated with brute force and the use of truth drugs, which caused him to reveal the location of the rest of the Black Shadow organization; they were located in a binary system fifty light years away from Genesis.

The Black Shadow captain also revealed that his leader, General Ridley, had finally found a way to return to their own universe after finding an alien device called the Transwarp Machine which was capable of transporting matter into other realities. He also warned the USF that if they were planning to try and steal the device from the Black Shadow, it'd be suicide since they now had very powerful allies from various alien planets they had conquered. Not heeding the Black Shadow captains warning, the USF headed over to the uncharted binary system where they find that the Black Shadow captain hadn't been lying; the Black Shadow organization was far bigger than it had been fifteen years ago.

Unable to retreat, the USF is forced to fight the Black Shadow organization and their allies, destroying many of their ships and the Transwarp Machine in the process. But although the USF faught hard and destroyed several Black Shadow warships, the Black Shadow organization eventually overpowered them and destroyed every ship in their fleet, including Lunara's battleship, leaving Lloyd the last one standing. He quickly fled into Subspace where five Black Shadow battleships chased after him and attacked him, damaging his ships FTL engines and sending him back into normal space.

Lloyd was able to disable all five of the battleships using his ships advanced weapons, but not able to destroy them since they were much larger than the _Daphne._ In the process of fighting, Lloyd's ship had been severely damaged and could barely move at all, and the debris that had fallen on the bridge had injured Lloyd severely. He managed to get the FTL engines back online and flee into Subspace just in time before the Black Shadow battleships were back up and running again.

But because the _Daphne_ had been so badly damaged, the FTL engines gave out under stress and caused Lloyd to end up marooned in the asteroid field where Samus and the others were now. Since his ship was too damaged to even move, Lloyd had only enough power to send out SOS signals out into space in hopes that someone would find him and save him.

"And then about a day later, you arrived here and brought me on this ship, and so here I am" Lloyd concluded as Samus stitched up the last of his wounds.

"Oh Lloyd, I'm so sorry; that's so tragic" Samus exclaimed sadly.

"Yes, it is," Lloyd said, clenching his fists with anger. "And I've got to find a way to make the Black Shadow pay for what they did".

"But how? Your ships been severely damaged, not to mention that you've been injured from the battle you were in, and you don't even know where the Black Shadow is" Samus wondered.

"I'll find some way to do it," Lloyd answered. "Where is my ship, by the way?".

"It's still out there in the asteroid field; I'll tow it back to Smashopolis City with my ships tractor beam where it can be repaired" Samus answered, placing the used medical equipment in a sterilization device to clean them.

"Smashopolis City? Where's that?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"It's back on Earth in the Sol system about five hundred light years from here," Samus answered, preparing to tend to his broken leg. "I've got to reset your broken leg, so this might hurt". She then reset the bone in Lloyd's leg, causing brief intense pain to shoot through his injured body.

"Ugh, damn!" Lloyd cursed painfully as Samus began wrapping his broken leg up.

"I'm sorry, Lloyd; just hold still for a few seconds," Samus instructed as she finished wrapping up Lloyd's broken leg. Lloyd felt very grateful that this woman had saved his life and tended to his wounds, but the amount of sorrow he felt over Lunara's death was one thing Samus couldn't heal. "There, you can step down now; use this to balance yourself on". Samus handed Lloyd a metal crutch which allowed him to walk on his free leg.

"Hey Samus," Lloyd called out as Samus headed out of the room; she turned back and saw Lloyd smile. "Thanks, I really thought I was going to die alone out there". Samus smiled warmly as Lloyd followed her out of the medical room and out into the corridor.

* * *

 **A/N: Another chapter successfully completed, and still more to come soon. Until then, see you soon folks!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey there everyone, I've got the next chapter up and ready. I've been quite busy with my novel plot, drawing, and other stuff, so this chapter took awhile to do. I'm also planning to proof read and make corrections to the other chapters once I get the chance. So anyway, I present the third chapter; reviews are welcome, but no flames or trolls.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are the only ones I own.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Back To Smashopolis

"There it is, planet Earth; Smashopolis is located on that large island near Miami" Samus pointed out to Lloyd on her ships monitor, who looked both amazed and puzzled. He found that the Earth in this reality looked pretty much the same as the Earth back in Lloyd's own reality, only this Earth had a few new islands unlike the other Earth in his reality.

"So that island is where you live?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"Yes, it is, and so does my boyfriend Solid Snake and a whole bunch of other Smashers; I think you'll like them" Samus answered as she disengaged her ships hyperdrive engines and then re-entered normal space where Lloyd was now able to see the Earth up close through the ship's front window.

"What are Smashers?" Lloyd wondered.

"Their a group of different people of various species from seven different dimensions that all live in a very large mansion in Smashopolis. At certain times, we participate in a battle tournament to test our skills in various locations in the seven worlds" Samus explained.

"And what worlds are these?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"There's the original seven worlds from long ago; Pop Star, Sector Z, Yoshi's Island, Planet Zebes, Pokemon Stadium, Kongo Jungle, and the kingdom of Hyrule. Then there are the other seven worlds; Kongo Jungle, Skyworld, Eagleland, Mushroom Kingdom, Archanea, Shadow Moses Island, and Corneria. Each Smasher comes from these worlds to compete in the Smash Bros tournament" Samus explained.

"I see, so where are their world's located?" Lloyd asked, sounding curious.

"You've got quite a lot of questions, don't you?" Samus chuckled, bringing the ship down towards Earth.

"Yeah, I suppose I do" Lloyd said, still gazing at the Earth from near the bridges side window.

"Well, once we get to the Smash Mansion, I'll introduce you to all the smashers; they'll answer all your questions" Samus promised as they prepared to enter the planet's atmosphere; the preparation was interrupted by the beeping of Samus's communication system.

 _"Samus, this is Fox McCloud; do you read me?"_ Fox announced over the comlink.

"This is Samus; what's going on, Fox?" Samus responded.

 _"Falco just detected a huge fleet of ships near the planet Neptune, and they're headed in our direction"_ Fox reported. Lloyd's expression turned grim when he heard this; he had a bad feeling of who those ships belonged to.

"How big is this fleet? And what type of ships are they?" Samus asked in concern.

 _"There's a total of fifty ships; thirty of them register as battleships, ten of them are dreadnaughts, and there are nine that register as patrol cruisers. The last one appears to be a super dreadnaught about 12,800 meters long"_ Fox described.

"My God, that's a lot of ships," Samus exclaimed in surprise. "Do you have any analysis on the super dreadnaught?".

 _"Yes, I've got an analysis on it,"_ Fox replied, and then he said just what Lloyd feared. _"Its registration code is CF-666, and its codename is Death's Head"._ Lloyd's eyes widened in horror and he clenched his fists.

"Oh no! It's them!" Lloyd gasped in fear.

"You know them?" Samus questioned.

"Damn right I do," Lloyd hissed, his expression changing to anger. "It's the Black Shadow organization! They're the ones who murdered Lunara and the whole USF fleet".

"How did they find us out here? Did their long range sensors detect us?" Samus wondered, now afraid.

"No, their long range sensors couldn't have reached out this far; they might have been searching for me after I barely escaped three of their battlecruisers and fled into the asteroid field. When I sent out my distress call, the Black Shadow must have tracked it and then sent a feedback tracer signal into my ships computer core; once they hack through the firewalls and implant the tracer inside the computer core, the _Daphne_ basically becomes a giant tracking device" Lloyd realized.

"Then we have to get your ship away from Earth, or vaporize it at the very best" Samus said, bringing her ships weapon systems online, but Lloyd wasn't going to let her do such a thing.

"No! Don't you dare even think about destroying that ship!" Lloyd snapped in a defensive tone.

"We don't have a choice; you want the Black Shadow to find me and the others too?" Samus shot back.

"I didn't confirm that a Black Shadow tracking program hacked my ship; it's only a theory" Lloyd argued.

"And what if your theory is correct; that means we're all in trouble, including Earth," Samus protested, arming her ships aft laser cannons. "I'm sorry Lloyd, but it's too risky; that ship has to go". Samus locked onto Lloyd's ship and prepared to fire her aft weapons, but Lloyd reached out and grabbed her wrist roughly, gripping it tightly.

"I _said_ your not destroying it, that's _my_ ship!" Lloyd snarled angrily, gripping Samus's wrist tightly.

"Let me go, Lloyd; it's just a starship" Samus snapped, struggling to pull her wrist away, but Lloyd had a strong grip.

"No, it's _not_ just a starship, Samus; it's a part of my family, and you can't destroy that" Lloyd protested; a puzzled expression came over Samus's face when she heard this.

"What?! What the hell are you talking about? What do you mean it's part of your family?" Samus questioned in confusion.

"That ship belonged to my mother before she died over twelve years ago; it's been in my family since 2133. I was only twelve years old when I inherited the _Daphne_ in 2145, two years before I joined the USF military on Parthenia" Lloyd explained.

"Twelve years old?! Weren't you a bit young at the time to be piloting a starship? How old are you anyway?" Samus asked in a tone of slight disbelief.

"I was born gifted, and I'm twenty-nine years old, by the way; I had shown overly advanced skills of understanding starships when I was ten, so my mother let me pilot the _Daphne_ in 2145 before she was killed in a Black Shadow invasion on the Earth in my own universe. My father died in 2135 from an alien virus on an earth like planet named Erza VI, so I hardly remember him," Lloyd's eyes began tearing up. "And in 2145, the Black Shadow invaded Earth and destroyed almost everything and invaded my family mansion as my mother and I attempted to escape the invasion. They captured my mother, raped, and then stabbed her repeatedly until she was dead. I was the only one who escaped the mansion and fled into deep space with the USF fleet on the _Daphne,_ vowing to avenge my mother and all the others that were murdered at the hands of the Black Shadow organization. The _S.S Daphne_ and I have been through so much together since then, and its basically the only home I have left, so you _can't_ destroy it. Once we land in Smashopolis, I'll run diagnostics on the computer core to see if the Black Shadow hacked it without me knowing. If they did, then I'll purge the motherboard and eliminate the virus, so power down your ships weapons and leave my ship intact".

Samus thought hard about everything that Lloyd had just told her, then she powered down her weapons system. Samus knew what losing a family was like since she had lost her parents to the evil alien space pirates as a child, so she could understand how Lloyd probably felt about losing everything he ever cared about.

"All right, but you've got to be absolutely sure that your ships computer isn't bugged" Samus insisted, reaching over to the comlink. "Fox, what's the ETA of those Black Shadow vessels out there?".

 _"My sensors indicate that they're all traveling at full impulse; their ETA to Earth is five days at their current speed"_ Fox reported, checking his sensors.

"Five days?! Then we've got to warn Master Hand and all of Smashopolis about this before the Black Shadow gets here" Samus urgently replied.

 _"Do you think that they intend to invade Earth? We could be wrong"_ Fox wondered theoretically. Before Samus could answer, Lloyd suddenly cut in, catching her by surprise.

"Fox, this is Lloyd Florence of the _S.S Daphne_ ; if your suggesting that the Black Shadow is not going to invade Earth, your wrong. Invading worlds and conquering them is exactly what the Black Shadow does, and that's what they will do to Earth" Lloyd informed in a serious tone of voice.

 _"Well, then all we gotta do is team up and then fight them off. The Smashopolis military has some new and powerful fighter jets that are space flight capable, and with all fifty of them combined together, we can defeat this Black Shadow organization"_ Fox suggested.

"No, you don't understand; you have absolutely no idea what your all up against. The Black Shadow organization has an armada of over one hundred warships, and they've got fifty slave warships backing them up. And their mothership is that super dreadnaught known as _Death's Head._ There's no way you'd be able to win against the Black Shadow with just an army of fifty space fighter jets; without an entire battlefleet to back your fighters up, the Black Shadow would easily take you down in less than a minute" Lloyd explained seriously.

 _"Then we've got to do what Samus suggested and find a way to stop this possible invasion from happening"_ Fox agreed, signing off; Lloyd turned to Samus.

"We'd better get down to Smashopolis quickly and speak to this Master Hand person about this situation. My Earth was conquered in my own universe, and I don't want to see this Earth conquered like mine" he urged Samus, who nodded.

"Right, let's get going" Samus replied and then began to descend her ship down to Earth with the Star Fox team following behind her.

...

...

"Lucas, are you up?" Ness called out from behind the door of Lucas's room.

"Get lost, will you?!" Lucas snapped back on the other side of the door. Ignoring his cruel reply, Ness sighed and then entered the room where he found Lucas just staring at a photo of his mother Hinawa and his brother Claus.

"I was worried about you, and so are the other smashers" Ness said softly.

"I told you to stay out!" Lucas snapped with his back turned to Ness, who sighed sadly.

"Lucas, you can't keep doing this; at some point, you got to let this go" Ness said calmly.

"Yeah, well maybe you can forget what happened, but I can't" Lucas replied, still keeping his back turned to Ness.

"Look, what happened, happened; you can't change that. You've got to let go of the past and move on" Ness urged.

"Move on?! How the hell can I move on after what happened five years ago?!" Lucas suddenly shouted, spinning around abruptly with an angry glare. "The man responsible for the death's of my mother and Claus is still alive, and the damn court didn't even care about what he did to my world! They should have had that fat, murderous pig executed!".

"Lucas, I understand you despise Porky as much as I do, but there's nothing we can do about him; he's locked up for the rest of his miserable life, so you should just forget about him and move on" Ness insisted.

"How can I forget about him? Even though he's locked up for life, there's always a chance he could escape. Porky escaped the Super Safe Capsule, and that means he may find a way to escape prison" Lucas shot back.

"Then if that happens, we'll defeat him and have him locked back up again, just like five years ago" Ness replied.

"No, if he escapes, I won't be holding back," Lucas turned to the window and glared out at the night lit city of Smashopolis. " _I'll_ face Porky myself and this time I'll make sure to finish him off for good!".

"Lucas, killing Porky isn't going to bring Hinawa or Claus back, and you'd be no better than him if you did that; you know it and I know it" Ness protested.

"Don't you dare compare me to that pig, Ness! I wasn't the one who invaded Tazmily and then turned innocent people and animals into cyborgs that not only took over my home and murdered my mother, Porky was! And if he does find a way to escape prison, he'll probably do much worse to Smashopolis than he did to my world seven years ago; you think I want something like that to happen?" Lucas shot back coldly.

"Of course not, but I don't want to see you commit murder just to satisfy your desire for revenge," Ness retorted harshly. "You've got to get over your past, or you'll never be able to have a peaceful life. I'll never know what it's like to live without a mother, but I do know that if I had to, I'd move on and get over it". Lucas just shook his head and glared at Ness.

"Just get the hell out of here and leave me be! I'll deal with my own problems!" He snapped coldly. Ness knew at this point that there was no use arguing over this matter any further, so he just sighed in defeat.

"You know what, fine! I'm only trying to help you since your my best friend, but it seems that's not going to work with you anymore, so I'll go ahead and leave you be," Ness snapped back, then headed towards the door and turned back briefly. "Just to let you know, doing what your doing now is not what Hinawa or Claus would want you to do; they'd expect you to move on, just as your father, Duster, Kumatora, Boney, and I do. I just hope you keep that in mind". Ness then left Lucas alone and shut the door quietly, wondering just how long it would be until Lucas finally let go of his past.

...

...

"Here we are; Smashopolis Dry Dock" Samus announced as the lift from under her ship touched down; Samus helped Lloyd off the lift since he still had the crutch. The Star Fox team had also parked their ships into the dry dock hangers and had made their way over towards Samus and Lloyd.

"So this is the city of Smashopolis," Lloyd exclaimed, looking around at the enormous night lit city. "This place reminds me of New York City back in my own reality".

"Actually, this cities design was based off of New York's design, only Smashopolis is much bigger and wider," Samus explained as Fox and his friends joined them. "I think you'll like it here".

"Yeah, I think I... might" Lloyd replied, suddenly feeling a bit dizzy.

"Whoa, you okay Lloyd?" Fox asked in concern, grabbing Lloyd from behind to break his fall.

"I... I'm feeling a bit light headed all of a sudden" Lloyd answered, trying to balance himself on his crutch.

"You lost a lot of blood back on your ship in space," Samus reminded him as she helped Lloyd up. "We'd better get you to Smash Hospital and get your wounds professionally treated".

"What about my ship?" Lloyd asked, looking back at the _Daphne,_ which had been set down on a large hover platform inside a large hanger bay.

"Don't worry about it; Fox and his team will repair it while you heal from your injuries," Samus assured Lloyd, then contacted Master Hand. "Master Hand, we've made it back with the pilot and his ship; his name is Lloyd Florence".

 _"Is he all right?"_ Master Hand asked over Samus's ear piece.

"He lost quite a bit of blood and had several deep cuts and a broken leg; I stitched up and bandaged most of the deep wounds, but he'll need to be taken to the hospital for further treatment" Samus reported.

 _"I see; you better take him there right away then. I'll send Pit and Lucario down to the dry dock to fly you both to Smashopolis Hospital, then you can all return to Smash Mansion to rest up for the night. Tomorrow once he's released, bring him over to Smash Mansion to stay as a guest; I look forward to meeting his acquaintance there myself"_ Master Hand replied over Samus's comlink.

"I'll do that right away; Samus out," Samus signed off and then helped Lloyd keep his balance. "You feeling all right?".

"Um, I'm feeling a bit light headed; it must have been from all the blood loss" Lloyd answered in a dizzy voice.

"Don't worry, Lucario and Pit are coming to take us both to Smashopolis Hospital; they're members of the Smash Brothers team" Samus replied.

"Where are they?" Lloyd asked, growing tired from blood loss.

"They should be here in about a minute or so," Samus answered, and no sooner than that, they both saw two figures flying up over a nearby skyscraper and straight towards the dry dock where they landed in front of Samus and Lloyd. "Ah, here they are now". Lloyd felt a pang of excitement and surprise when he saw the two smashers up close for the first time; an angel and a humanoid creature that somewhat resembled a fox.

"Samus, Master Hand told us you'd be here," Pit replied, looking over at Lloyd. "This must be Lloyd Florence, I presume?". Lloyd could hardly believe that a real angel was standing right in front of him. He had only seen angels in church photos when he was a child, but Lloyd never thought he'd meet a real angel in person.

"Yes, his fleet was attacked by a fleet of dangerous space terrorists; Lloyd was the only survivor" Samus answered, feeling sorry for Lloyd.

"Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that," Pit said sympathetically, stepping up to Lloyd. "Name's Pit by the way; I'm happy to meet you".

"Lloyd Florence; I never thought I'd meet an angel" Lloyd answered in awe.

"Well, it seems your in luck," Pit replied, then he looked over at Lucario. "This here is Lucario, another one of the smashers".

"I'm pleased to meet your acquaintance, Mr. Florence" Lucario greeted.

"You too," Lloyd replied, looking at the strange humanoid being from head to toe. "What are you, by the way?".

"I'm a creature called a Pokemon; I'm from a realm where many other Pokemon like me exist" Lucario answered.

"That sounds... really..." Lloyd suddenly slurred and then he collapsed to the ground.

"Lloyd, are you all right? Lloyd!" Pit quickly leaned down to lift Lloyd up, but then he noticed that the wound on his left hip had torn itself open again, causing him to lose more blood.

"Oh no, his wounds must have opened up when we left my ship," Samus quickly lifted Lloyd up from the ground where she saw his tattered uniform drenched with blood. "We've got to get medical help for him now!".

"I'll fly him to Smashopolis Hospital as fast as I can," Pit replied, picking Lloyd up with both hands and spreading his wings. "Lucario, you follow me".

"Right behind you" Lucario replied, turning to Samus. "We'll take care of Lloyd; you should return to Smash Mansion and rest up from the mission".

"All right, I'll come see Lloyd in the morning with some of the other smashers too," Samus said and then Pit and Lucario flew off into the night sky; she then turned to Fox and his friends. "We'd better get back to the mansion too; it's a few minutes past midnight".

"Yeah, your right; I'm getting tired" Slippy agreed, yawning.

"We'll take a look at Lloyd's ship tomorrow once we're all rested up" Fox declared and then he and his team headed back for Smash Mansion.

...

...

"Are we still on course for Earth?" General Ridley asked Faust on the bridge of the _Death's Head_.

"Yes, the engineering crew is still working on the damage that the USF fleet inflicted on our mothership" Faust informed, checking the star map on his console.

"Good, see to it that we stay on course at full impulse and be sure that my other ships are fully ready once we arrive at Earth in five days" Ridley ordered.

"Right away, General," Faust replied, just as his console informed him of something that looked suspicious. "Hmm, that's quite odd".

"What's odd? Did you find something?" Ridley asked curiously.

"Long range sensor logs indicate that six unidentified ships entered the Earths atmosphere about thirty minutes ago," Faust reported, checking the results on his console. "One of them was towing a damaged ship with a tractor beam".

"What? Why wasn't this detected thirty minutes ago?" Ridley demanded impatiently.

"Our long range sensors were still suffering a few glitches that might have results from our fight against the USF fleet. They appear to be working well again; the engineering crew must have repaired the sensor systems down in engineering" Faust explained. The cyborg General just let out an exhaling hiss of frustration, then retained his normal posture.

"Whatever, no use crying over spilled milk," Ridley muttered. "What type of ship was being towed down to Earth?".

"The sensor log indicates that it was a small, heavily armed Greyhawk class warship; it's registration is..." Faust paused for a minute when he read what the ship's name was.

"Well, what is it?! Don't just stop halfway" Ridley snapped demandingly.

"The ship's registration is SE-429, _S.S Daphne;_ that's Lloyd Florence's ship!" Faust realized. Ridley's eyes widened in shock when he heard the name of the damaged ship; it was impossible!

"WHAT?! That's impossible; Lloyd Florence is dead!" Ridley roared furiously, standing up from his command chair.

"He must have sent out a distress signal when he was lost in the asteroid field; that's the only way he could have been found" Faust concluded. Ridley was infuriated by what his second in command had just told him; if Lloyd had indeed survived the asteroid field, then the Black Shadow faced a huge blunder. Ridley was pretty sure that Lloyd wasn't aware that his organization planned to invade Earth, but he did know that if Lloyd was still alive, he'd return to planet Genesis and alert the rest of what remained of the USF about what had happened to the USF military fleet.

If Lloyd did this, they'd attempt to rebuild their fleet and try taking on the Black Shadow organization again once they had recovered enough. Ridley would not let this happen, not again; the USF almost wiped them out once, and they would not let them try again.

"Are we still at full impulse?" Ridley demanded harshly.

"Yes, our speed hasn't changed" Faust replied, feeling slightly nervous from Ridley's sudden change in mood.

"Change of plans then," Ridley declared, sitting back down in his command chair. "Inform the fleet to enter subspace at warp 1. We'll be able to reach Earth in three days at warp 1, still giving my engineering crew plenty of time to repair the damage on the _Death's Heads_ defense and weapons systems".

"I'll inform them right away, yet I have one question" Faust answered.

"What is it?" Ridley snapped, not in the mood for questions.

"Why not just engage to warp 2? We'd reach Earth in twelve hours at warp 2" Faust wondered curiously.

"Because if we did, there wouldn't be time to fully repair the damage to the weapons and defense systems," Ridley snapped, starting to lose patience with Faust. "Now stop questioning my damn orders before you really start pissing me off!".

"Y-yes General," Faust replied nervously, not wanting to get on Ridley's bad side. He sent word of Ridley's new orders to rest of the Black Shadow fleet, who reported ready a few minutes later. "The fleets ready for warp 1".

"Good, activate FTL engines and let's go" Ridley replied, not wanting to waste anymore time. Faust then ordered the navigation officer to engage the warp engines, then the _Death's Head_ entered hyperspace followed by the rest of the Black Shadow fleet. As the Black Shadow organization flew through hyperspace, Ridley promised to find and eliminate Lloyd once his fleet arrived at Earth, and this time he'd make sure Lloyd stayed dead for good.

* * *

 **A/N: Uh oh, looks like big troubles coming! What do you suppose will become of Lloyd once he heals? And will Lucas ever overcome Hinawa and Claus's death? Those answers will be revealed in chapters yet to come. Like always, reviews are most welcome, but flames and trolls are not; see you next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey everyone, I'm VERY sorry that this update is a month late; I've been busy with college and my landscaping job, so things have been tiresome on me. However, my college course ends this Thursday, so I shouldn't be as delayed as before. So anyway, here's chapter four; read and review.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are the only ones I own.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Newcomers In Smashopolis

"Man, this ship really took some damage" Fox exclaimed as he looked over all the control consoles on the bridge of Lloyd's starship.

"Yeah, I can assume that it's going to take at least a week or so to get this ship fixed from the state it's in" Falco agreed, removing several damaged components from the main control console..

"I'm surprised it even made it this far; for a small warship, it can take quite a beating" Krystal added, observing several large cracks and dents in the walls of the bridge.

"And I'm surprised the main computer is still working," Peppy said, checking the status of the ship's main computer on the center of the bridge. "We'll need to repair it though and find a way to preserve the data in this computer in case it crashes".

"I can be of assistance for that" a robotic voice offered; R.O.B the robot entered the bridge and wheeled over to the main computer.

"Oh, R.O.B; what brings you here?" Slippy asked the robot curiously.

"Samus told me to help you guys out with fixing Lloyd's ship. I can download the ship's historical data and other information into my own memory and then re-upload it once the ship's computers been repaired" R.O.B explained, extending a power cable from inside his chest and plugging it into the ship's main computer.

"Good, with your help, we'll be able to get the job done much quicker and easier" Fox said thankfully.

"I'm always glad to be of service" R.O.B said cheerfully as he began downloading info from the main computer.

"Can you get a damage estimate from the computer?" Falco asked the robot.

"I'm checking that now," R.O.B reported, typing several buttons on his chest. "Hmm, this is quite serious, very serious indeed".

"What's serious? What did the computer say?" Krystal asked worriedly.

"The computer just told me that there are at least seven major components that took extreme damage," R.O.B explained. "The pressurization systems been severely damaged, and the main components for the Faster Than Light travel engines, main engines, and the weapons system have to be replaced. One of the Faster Than Light engines was also destroyed and will also need to be replaced, and the hull armor took quite a beating from weapons fire inflicted by the Black Shadow organization. It's going to take a lot, and I mean a LOT of work to restore this ship to full condition again".

"Well I'll be damned," Falco exclaimed. "It's a miracle that Lloyd survived in this ship in the condition it's in".

"But where are we going to find new parts for this ship? It's not even from our universe" Fox wondered.

"I've got the blueprints from the ship's computer," R.O.B announced. "It contains information on all the parts and components in this ship, and most of them are very similar to the parts on your Arwings and Samus Aran's starship. The Smashopolis Starship Yards and the Dry Dock has pretty much every part for any starships and space vehicles from our world and the other realms, so we might be able to find some of the parts we need there".

"Yes, but I've been there before and space vehicle parts are extremely expensive at that place, especially the major components like the computer systems, the engines, and the weapons systems; parts like the ones on this ship would cost us at least 50,000 credits each; we'd never be able to afford all the new parts for this ship with prices on them that high" Fox informed.

"Actually, there might be one way that we can afford the parts" Slippy inquired.

"How?" Peppy asked curiously.

"Master Hand recently told me that Smashopolis City will be having a prize tournament in four days, which is on Friday, and the team that wins the tournament will be awarded two million credits" Slippy explained.

"Wow, that's quite a prize; with that many credits, we could afford all the parts we need to repair Lloyd's ship. Hell, we could even afford a whole new starship at that if we chose to" Fox exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, but only if our team wins," Slippy reminded. "Master Hand also told me that our opponents will be guest members from a few other realms that we haven't visited yet. He didn't tell me who these guest members were, only that they'd also be competing for the prize money as well".

"Hmm, that sounds interesting; I wonder who these guest competitors are..." Falco wondered.

"We'll just have to wait and see once the tournament starts on Friday" Fox answered.

"Well then, I don't see any reason to hang out on this ship until we have the parts needed to repair it," Krystal replied. "Why don't we go ask Master Hand who the new competitors are".

"That sounds like a plan; maybe we won't have to wait to find out who the newcomers are" Falco assumed.

"All right then, let's get going," Fox announced, then turned to R.O.B. "You coming, R.O.B?".

"I'll stay here on the ship for awhile; I want to download as much data from the ship's computer as I can in case it crashes. It may also help me learn more about Lloyd and the universe he came from" R.O.B answered, scanning the _Daphnes_ computer.

"That's fine then; carry on" Fox said and then he and his team left the ship.

...

...

Meanwhile down at Smashopolis Hospital, Lloyd was currently being tended to in the recovery room by two nurses. He had just recently gotten a blood transfusion from losing so much blood, and his broken leg had been reset and placed in a cast. Lloyd's larger wounds on his chest, legs, and arms had also been stitched up and applied with clean bandages. His uniform had been removed and sent to the basement washroom to be cleaned and mended; Lloyd was given a pair of sweat shorts and a white short sleeve shirt to wear once he had awakened in the recovery room.

"I can go after this, right?" Lloyd asked one of the nurses curiously.

"Yes, just be sure to return here to have your cast removed once your leg bone heals" the nurses answered, placing a final bandage on Lloyd's leg. Lloyd then grabbed a crutch next to the hospital bed which had been given to him by one of the doctors when he woke up. After having a final check up, Lloyd was wheeled out of the recovery room in a wheelchair by one of the nurses all the way down the hall and then into the elevator. After a minute of riding inside the elevator, it came to a stop and then the doors opened to the main lobby where Lloyd saw Samus waiting near the hospital entrance and exit.

"Ah, there you are, Lloyd; they told me you'd be coming" Samus said as the nurse stopped in front of her.

"Oh, Samus," Lloyd exclaimed, getting up from the wheelchair. "I didn't expect to see you here".

"Master Hand told me to come bring you to Smash Mansion after you were checked out,of the hospital. A guest rooms been prepared for you there once we arrive" Samus informed as she lead Lloyd outside to a black limousine hummer parked near the front of the hospital.

"You have your own private limo?" Lloyd exclaimed in wonder.

"Yeah, it's our mode of transportation around the city; it'll take us to Smash Mansion" Samus answered, opening the side door for him; Lloyd slid inside and Samus got in and pulled the door closed.

"You two buckled up a-back there?" the driver called out from the drivers seat in an Italian accent. Lloyd looked up and saw that the driver of the limo was a tall man dressed in green and wore a green hat; it was Mario's brother Luigi.

"We're all ready, Luigi," Samus replied, turning to Lloyd. "That's Luigi, one of the Smashers".

"Ah, that-a must be the space pilot you-a rescued," Luigi said, glancing briefly at Lloyd in the rearview mirror. "I'm-a Luigi; nice to meet-a you".

"Lloyd Florence; nice to meet you too" Lloyd said as the limo moved along the road. As they all rode on their way to Smash Mansion, Lloyd gazed out the window at the city of Smashopolis, trying to put his painful memories behind him. Yet despite his efforts, Lloyd could not get the destruction of his fleet and his lover out of his mind.

"Lloyd, you all right?" Samus asked Lloyd, seeing how distraught he looked.

"Yeah, I'm... fine," Lloyd lied, still looking out the window. "Lunara... Lunara would've loved to see this place...". He tried his best not to shed tears in front of Samus and Luigi, but the sorrow he felt was far too much for him to contain, and he couldn't help but let the tears flow.

"Hey, your crying, what's wrong?" Samus asked in concern. Lloyd said nothing as he wiped tears from his eyes, not wanting to face Samus directly.

"Yeah, you seem-a distressed" Luigi added.

"It's... it's nothing, don't worry about me" Lloyd assured them both, wiping tears from his eyes.

"Come on, Lloyd, it's obvious that somethings bothering you; tell us about it" Samus insisted.

"(Sigh)... It's just... I really miss her..." Lloyd sighed sadly, looking at Samus with tears going down his face; he then held up his cast bound hand and showed Samus the engagement ring Lunara had given him a week ago.

"Oh...," Samus said, feeling a deep sense of regret for Lloyd when she remembered him telling her about the woman he was going to marry before she was killed through the destruction of her battleship. "You mean... Lunara?". Lloyd nodded slowly with a sniff, then turned back to face the window.

"She... she didn't deserve to die...," Lloyd said with a low growl of anger. "I... I couldn't save her!".

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Lloyd," Samus said in a comforting manner. "There wasn't anything you could've done; you'd have been killed as well, and you wouldn't be here now". As painful as it sounded, Lloyd knew in his heart that Samus was right. Lloyd had been up against the entire Black Shadow fleet at the time Lunara's ship was destroyed, and if Lloyd attempted to save her, he might have also been killed.

And even now, Lloyd was helpless to retaliate against the Black Shadow; his entire fleet was gone, his ship was badly damaged, and the Black Shadow was headed for Earth. Lloyd didn't know how long it would be until they arrived, but he knew that Smashopolis did not have military technology strong enough to even come close to matching 22nd century technology; things looked very hopeless at this point, and Lloyd didn't know what to do.

...

...

Meanwhile out in space, the Black Shadow fleet was currently making its way towards Earth at full impulse speed. The _Death's Head_ mothership crew had succeeded in repair some of the damage sustained to the weapons and shield systems, but the FTL engines were still heavily damaged. Ridley had retired to his quarters for the time being and left Faust in charge of the bridge, allowing him time to make repairs to the cybernetic air supplier system which pumped air through his air mask and into his crippled lungs. But as he was minding his own business, Ridley felt the ship rumble and then the _Death's Head_ suddenly came to a slow stop.

"What the hell...?! Why did the ship stop?!" Ridley snapped, tossing one of his repair tools down and standing up, and as if on cue, the comlink system came on.

 _"General Ridley, we have a problem"_ Faust reported over the comlink speaker near the door.

"What sort of problem is it?! It better not be serious" Ridley growled, letting out a wheeze from his air mask.

 _"I'm afraid it is, General,"_ Faust replied, sounding nervous over the comlink. _"The FTL engines just overheated and the coolant tanks for both the impulse and FTL engines were damaged in the process"._

"What?! How the hell did that happen?! The engines were working just fine, and they weren't that damaged in our fight with the USF" Ridley demanded angrily.

 _"One of our repair crew workers apparently tried to give the FTL engines more power by increasing the velocity using extra power cells. I repeatedly told him not to, but he insisted on it; that damned fool"_ Faust explained, sounding very frustrated, but Ridley was much more than frustrated; he was furious.

"What?! Who was it that did it?!" Ridley demanded furiously, outraged that a lower ranking crew member would dare to defy orders from his second in command.

 _"It was Cadet Kyle Stacy, General. He's been taken to the brig for jurisdiction of duty"_ Faust answered.

"Cadet Stacy?! I should've known he'd do something stupid like that," Ridley hissed angrily. "That fat fuck is always messing things up, and this time, he's gone way too far! Inform security that I want him brought up to my quarters, and no exceptions! How badly damaged are the engines?".

 _"Very bad, General; two of the FTL engine coolant tanks were ruptured and the other three for the impulse engines have been critically damaged. It's going to take at least a week to repair all the engines, and that means our arrival to Earth will be delayed until then"_ Faust reported regrettably with disappointment in his voice.

"DAMN IT," Ridley roared furiously, punching a large gap in the bulkhead. "THAT FUCKING IDIOT!".

 _"I'm very sorry, General, but it is what it is; I can't change the law of physics"_ Faust said apologetically. Ridley wanted to protest, but he knew that his second in command was telling the truth, and that made him even angrier; he vowed to punish Cadet Stacy worse than ever before for daring to defy his superiors.

"Then so be it," Ridley snapped in defeat. "Contact the fleet and order them to rendezvous with the _Death's Head_ and then come to a full stop. And have the engineering crews start repairing the coolant tanks right now, and inform them that there will be no breaks until the tanks are fixed!".

 _"I'll do it right away, General,"_ Faust replied. _"Also, we should consider sending some of our organization members to Earth to search for Lloyd Florence. If he manages to repair his ship, or find a replacement one, he may head back to Genesis for backup"._

"I'm perfectly aware of that" Ridley snapped, trying to think of what to do about Lloyd. He knew that if Lloyd managed to fix his ship, then he'd most likely try and make a run for Genesis. Ridley knew that whatever remained of the USF would be no match against his entire organization, but he knew that if Lloyd told them about everything that had happened to the USF military forces, they might try and find a way to foil his plans. Ridley didn't really think that the USF would be that much of a threat to him since he succeeded in nearly wiping them all out, but he still had unfinished business with Lloyd. After all, Lloyd was the one who responsible for forcing his organization to retreat from Avalon Prime which eventually lead them into the blackhole that trapped them all in this alternate universe; Ridley had sworn then to make Lloyd pay for this humiliation, and he'd keep that vow.

 _"What do you want us to do about Lloyd? He's a big problem to our plans"_ Faust asked, eager for an answer.

"I've got a plan on how to get rid of him for good," Ridley began. "Inform Captain Jadus of the warship _Astaroth_ to continue on a course to Earth at warp 1. Once they arrive I want them to scan the entire planet and find out where Lloyd is currently located. Once Lloyd is located, have Captain Jadus send down an armed scout team to search the city called Smashopolis and eliminate him, as well as any who try to stand in our way. While their at it, tell Captain Jadus to find out where the key to the Seven Worlds is located so we can obtain the treasure hidden in one of the worlds; that treasure might just be the key to returning home to our own universe once we find out where it's hidden".

 _"Right away, General; Faust out"_ Faust acknowledged and then the comlink shut off. Ridley was quite eager to get his hands on the mysterious treasure the the key to the Seven Worlds had hidden. About a four days ago after the USF fleet was destroyed, the _Death's Head_ sensors intercepted a small spy satellite in orbit around Earth, which they hacked into to find out more about what this universe's Earth was like. The first surprise that the Black Shadow discovered was that the year in this universe was 2015 A.D, approximately one century behind their own universe.

Another thing they discovered was that this Earth still used mid 21st century technology that was far less advanced and even obsolete in many ways compared to 22nd century technology, which would make victory much easier for the Black Shadow. But that was not all that the Black Shadow learned; after further studying of Earth, the Black Shadow had found out something that had astounded them all. In this universe, there existed a city called Smashopolis located on a nearby island near New York City where various beings called Smashers from different worlds in various dimensions (some human, some humanoid) fought in a sports tournament called the Smash Bros tournament for different reasons. Some to test their skills to see who was the strongest, and sometimes for sports entertainment.

Ridley had also discovered that some of these Smashers possessed mysterious powers which they used in these Smash Bros battles, and some of the world's they came from were almost as advanced as the Black Shadow and the USF. Those specific worlds got Ridley concerned since their technology was capable of standing against his organization, and if Lloyd managed to form a relationship with those worlds, then the Black Shadow could end up facing serious problems.

Ridley didn't know just what these worlds were capable of, nor did he fully know what he was up against. And some of the Smashers even possessed magical abilities, which could be even more of a threat to Ridley and his organization; he would need time to reconnoiter these other worlds before ordering his warships to attack them. Entering these various worlds was possible using an advanced device called the Transwarp Gate, located in the center of Smashopolis City; Ridley had seen an image of it from the hacked spy satellite.

The Transwarp Gate was an enormous machine that resembled a large satellite dish capable of creating rips in the fabric of dimensional space which could create an entrance of whatever size desired, allowing people to come and go through different dimensions. Ridley had to find a way to gain control of the gate so that his organization could search for the hidden treasure which would supposedly be able to send them back to their own universe in the 22nd century; he'd need the key to the Seven Worlds first though.

From what Ridley had learned from the satellite hacking, the key to the Seven Worlds was located somewhere in a place called the Smashopolis Research Facility, located north of the Smash Stadium. Once the Black Shadow got a hold of that key, the treasure would be theirs for the taking, and then the conquest for the hidden treasure would then begin.

...

...

"Hey guys, the guest members are here" Fox announced to the other Smashers as he entered the Smash Mansion game room. The Smashers stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to the game room entrance as Fox, Falco, Slippy, and Peppy entered with the guests competing in the new tournament coming up. The first four guests were Wein Cruz, Charlone Claudius, Hans Bearnt, and Riviera Marius from the Growlanser realm.

Then there was Anna and her sister Elsa, a cryomancer princess from the Frozen realm with the ability to control the element of ice, Rayman and Globox from the Glade of Dreams, a cyborg chicken from the Robot Chicken universe, Giana and her sister Maria from the Giana Sisters series, and then the last four were none other than Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick from the South Park universe; Stan was dressed up in his knight costume, Kyle was dressed as an elf king, Cartman as a wizard, and Kenny was dressed up just like a princess in a royal dress that slightly resembled Princess Zelda's clothing.

"Hello everyone," Wein announced. "Master Hand told us we'd be staying here as guests until the end of the tournament. I hope we all get along well".

"Bok bok (I look forward to hanging out with you all)" Robot Chicken clucked.

"Whoa, this place is totally like... really awesome," Eric Cartman exclaimed, observing all the luxurious surroundings of the mansion.

"Yeah, these guys must be rich to live in a place like this" Stan replied in awe.

"Yea, this pwace wooks wool (yeah, this place looks cool)" Kenny replied in a muffled tone due to his orange perka hood over his head.

"Wow, this place is big," Globox exclaimed. "I wonder if they have plum juice...".

"Globox, that stuff makes you drunk, remember?" Rayman reminded him.

"So, where are we staying?" Elsa asked Fox curiously.

"I'll show you all to the guest rooms on the third floor if you'll all just follow me" Fox said and then started up the stairs. As the guests followed him upstairs, Samus, Luigi, and Lloyd entered the mansion through the front door.

"Ah, Luigi, your-a back" Mario greeted as he saw Luigi, Samus, and Lloyd come through the door. "Who's the new-a guy?". A few of the other Smashers noticed Lloyd and came out of the game room to get a better look at him.

"Wow, he's a handsome one" Giana exclaimed at the sight of Lloyd's muscular build.

"Someone's been hitting the gym" Olimar commented.

"Is he the space pilot we heard on R.O.B's recording of the distress call?" Snake asked Samus curiously.

"Yes, his names Lloyd Florence, a space marine" Samus nodded.

"Wow, a real space marine, just like you" Ness exclaimed in excitement.

"I'm a bounty hunter, not a space marine" Samus corrected the PSI wielder. Lloyd looked at each of the smashers, amazed by the different variety of species they were. He saw that some of the smashers were human, and some of them were humanoid and animal.

"Are these the Smashers you told me about?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"Yes," Samus answered. "Why don't you introduce yourself to all of them".

"Um, sure" Lloyd said, feeling a bit shy as he introduced himself to all the smashers. As each one of the smashers greeted Lloyd, his shyness slowly melted away as he greeted them as well. Lloyd had been lost and alone in deep space for over three days, and being able to socialize with anyone again felt very relieving. As Lloyd greeted each of the Smashers, Stan, Kyle, Eric, and Kenny all came back downstairs into the game room dressed in their normal clothing.

"Come on you guys, let's see what games they got" Cartman said as he lead his friends into the game room where Kenny accidentally bumped into Samus.

"Oh," Samus turned around to see Kenny looking up at her. "Sorry, I didn't see you coming".

"It's all wrif (it's all right)" Kenny said apologetically in his muffled tone, blushing under his perka hood at the sight of Samus's beauty.

"Your Kenny, right?" Samus remembered hearing his friends saying his name earlier.

"Yeah" Kenny nodded.

"I'm Samus, Samus Aran," Samus replied. "I'm pleased to meet you and your friends".

"You too" Kenny said, slightly blushing. As Samus walked off, Kenny stared at her with googly eyes from her sexy figure, which Cartman caught sight of as Stan and the other two followed him.

"Ooh, looks like Kenny's got the hots for Samus," Cartman teased with a grin. "You having dirty thoughts about her, brah?".

"I am not!" Kenny snapped, glaring at Cartman.

"Well, even if you do, she's too old for you" Cartman joked, heading over to join the other Smashers. Kenny muttered a disdainful tone as he walked over to a large table where the Smashers were eating chips and dip. Stan and Kyle joined Marth and Roy at the Xbox console while Fox informed Lloyd about the damage on his ship.

"Can it be fixed?" Lloyd asked worriedly, hoping that his ship wasn't damaged beyond repair.

"It can, yes," Fox replied. "But the replacement parts for it are far too costly, and the dry dock doesn't have the money for them right now, so it may be a while until it's repaired".

"How costly are we talking here?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"Each of the major components in the ship like the FTL engines, pressurization system, impulse engines, weapons, and the shield generator will have to be replaced, and each of them costs about 50,000 credits each, including the advanced weapons modifications you made to it. So I'd say the total price of repairing the ship would be about 1,000,000 credits" Fox concluded.

"No kidding?!" Lloyd gasped in shock; he had no idea that his ship would be so expensive to repair.

"No kidding; that's the estimated amount of money it will cost to restore that ship to full condition again," Fox confirmed. "I advise you to just replace it and purchase a new starship at the Smashopolis Space Vehicle Yards. It'll be much cheaper to purchase a new starship than to pay that high amount of credits to repair the _Daphne_ ". Lloyd shook his head in disagreement.

"No, that ship belonged to my mother before she died, and its become a second home to me. I vowed never to replace it after my mother was killed by the Black Shadow, so I'll try and find a way to get 1,000,000 credits, as hard as it maybe. But even if it will never sail among the stars again, I'm still not getting rid of it" Lloyd explained in a firm tone.

"Then how are you going to repair it? Without the necessary amount of credits, your ships not going anywhere" Fox questioned Lloyd logically.

"I... I don't know," Lloyd admitted in defeat. "I'll think of something". In truth, he had no idea how repairing his ship would even be possible if it was going to cost that much money, but Lloyd wasn't giving up. He was determined to find a way to fix his mother's ship, no matter how long it took.

"You know, there actually might be a way for you to win 1,000,000 credits, if your up for the challenge" Fox offered.

"There is?" Lloyd felt his heart leap with relief in his chest.

"Yes, there is," Fox answered. "As you might have noticed, the guests that just arrived here will be participating in a big, upcoming Smash Bros prize tournament. Whoever wins the tournament will be rewarded with two million credits. If you enter this tournament, you may have a chance at winning the prize money if you can make it through the whole tournament".

Lloyd didn't know what to say at first since he was not that familiar with the Smash Bros tournaments, but if winning this tournament meant he had a chance to repair the _S.S Daphne,_ then he'd take a chance on anything; his ship was the only piece of home he had left. After making up his mind, Lloyd looked at Fox with determination on his face and spoke.

"All right, I'm in" he said bravely.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally, chapter four is complete! Now that Lloyd has decided to enter the Smash Bros tournament, will he have a chance at winning the prize money to repair the _S.S Daphne_? ****And just what will the Black Shadow do next? You'll find out in the next chapter, coming soon.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Finally, after a month of procrastination, this chapter is FINALLY complete. Future chapters may be delayed since my life is getting busier than before and because of a new Adobe Photoshop class I'm taking at RCC, but I haven't given up yet on this story, so read on and review.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are the only ones I own.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Surprise Attack

"He's going to enter the tournament?" Snake asked Samus as she slipped on her nightgown and climbed into bed with him.

"That's what Fox told me hours ago," Samus replied, sliding near Snake. "Lloyd really seems determined to repair that ship of his; it really must mean a lot to him".

"I can't imagine what he must be going through right now," Snake said, feeling sorry for Lloyd. "He lost his mother, his fleet, and the woman he loved to that evil organization out there in space. And on top of that, he was nearly killed in battle and all alone in deep space with a critically damaged starship for several days in horrible pain from his deep, open wounds and blood loss; it's a miracle he survived".

"Yes, it is," Samus agreed. "Lloyd must really be fighting hard to keep himself together after everything he's been through. I just hope he wins the tournament so that he'll have a chance on restoring his ship to full condition again".

"If one of us Smashers win it, why not use it to purchase the parts for his ship ourselves," Snake suggested. "We can then give them to the Starship Repair Yards to repairs Lloyd's starship. He'd really be happy if we did that for him".

"That sounds like the reasonable thing to do," Samus said in agreement. "Sure, that's a lot of credits for us to lose, but if it means helping a friend in need, I'm sure it's worth it".

"Then it's decided," Snake declared. "Tomorrow, we'll explain this to the other Smashers, including the guest Smashers, and hopefully they'll agree to our suggestion".

"I'm pretty sure they will, but I'm not sure if Wario, Wolf, Ganondorf, and Bowser will agree to it. They're real greedy when it comes to prize money, and they might pitch a fit about giving it up" Samus replied worriedly.

"Don't worry about them, Samus," Snake assured her. "I'll speak with them and explain the situation; hopefully, they'll understand the situation and agree to cooperate".

"And if they don't?" Samus speculated.

"Then I'll try and battle them for it" Snake replied and then he shut off the light and went to sleep along with Samus. At the same time, Lloyd stood at the balcony of his guest room gazing out at the night lit city; from where he stood, he could see the Starship Dry Dock where the _S.S Daphne_ was being kept until repairs could be made. Lloyd vowed to win that Smash Bros tournament in the next three days, no matter what it took.

Samus and several of the other Smashers explained to Lloyd that the tournament was basically a fighters tournament which involved using physical or magical abilities to knock the opponents stamina down to zero. There were ten rounds in all that would take place on various landscapes of other realms. Once all ten opponents were defeated, the lead fighter would then face Master Hand as a final opponent. If the opponent were to defeat Master Hand, he or she would win the tournament, and the prize money would be theirs.

The Smashers and the guest members promised to train with Lloyd in the Smash Training Arena the next day to help him prepare for the tournament. He had no magic abilities, but he was well trained in physical combat and with weapons; Lloyd would have no problem using those techniques to get through the tournament. A lot of the Smashers also relied on their own physical attacks when participating in tournaments, like Snake, Samus, Link, the Star Fox team, and several others who didn't possess magical abilities like the ones who did.

Lloyd gazed at the city and then up into space in the night sky, wondering just what the Black Shadow organization was doing at that moment. Could they be on their way to Earth, or was it possible that they turned back and were still searching for him out in deep space? Lloyd could only speculate the possibilities for now, but he knew that if they were coming to Earth, they'd conquer this world for whatever resources they could find and then use them for their own benefit.

Lloyd wasn't sure that the Black Shadow would find much of anything useful to them here in this universe; most of the technology used in this universe's Earth was early 21st century technology, save for the Transwarp Gate and the Starships from other realms. Lloyd then thought about the Transwarp Gate that Samus had told him about hours ago and then began to wonder if it was possible to use it to return to his own universe once his ship was repaired, but then he remembered the rest of the survivors on planet Genesis and knew that leaving them behind wasn't an option; he's have to return to Genesis at some point after his ship was fixed to inform them of a new way home.

But then there was the Black Shadow organization as well; there was no way Lloyd could leave without finishing them off first. If Lloyd left this universe with the Black Shadow still at large, there was no telling what kind of horrors they would inflict on other inhabited planets in this universe. And if they chose to invade Earth and got their hands on the Transwarp Gate, they would become the greatest threat to ever exist; all the other realms and worlds there would fall at the hands of the Black Shadow.

Lloyd had to return to Genesis once his ship was repaired, if it could be repaired, that is. Hopefully, the surviving USF members and the other citizens of Genesis could form an alliance with the various realms where the Smashers came from, which might give them some support to take on the Black Shadow again. There were also their ally ships that had been most likely reduced to slaves by the Black Shadow organization, which was another thing that got Lloyd concerned.

They were probably being blackmailed and forced to aid the Black Shadow organization in their missions of conquest and deceit. If that was the case, then they were just victims of the Black Shadow who were being forced to serve them under threat of being exterminated for defiance. Lloyd would have to find a way of freeing them from the clutches of the Black Shadow organization and maybe even forging a temporary alliance with them to help defeat their masters. This plan was a very big one, and it was one that Lloyd could not accomplish alone. He was also not certain that he'd be guaranteed to win the upcoming tournament in four more days; Lloyd would never be able to repair the _S.S Daphne_ if he lost. He thought of all the innocent lives and friends that the Black Shadow had taken from him, including Lunara, and his mother.

The moment Lloyd thought of her, it brought tears of angst and sorrow into his eyes, including anger. He remembered that day all those years ago back on Earth in his own universe when Black Shadow forces invaded his home and then raped and murdered his mother while trying to escape onto the _Daphne_ ; Ridley had been there when it happened, and Lloyd remembered the evil smirk on his face as his thugs brutally raped and then dismembered his mother with their assassins knives, causing her to die a slow and painful death.

Lloyd had never forgiven himself for what had happened to his mother. He had always wished he could have done something on that night, wished he could have stood up to his mother's attackers and tried to stop them even though Lloyd knew that doing so might have resulted in his own death; Lloyd was very young at the time and he had been held at gunpoint by two other thugs as his mother was being raped and murdered. If Lloyd had tried to stand up to them at such a young age, they would have killed him right then and there.

And if his mother wasn't enough, the Black Shadow had to go and kill the woman he had fallen in love with, along with all the others onboard her battleship; just thinking of Lunara's death made Lloyd's blood boil with rage. The Black Shadow organization was the cause of all his pain and suffering, and Ridley was the one who made it happen. Lloyd vowed to destroy the entire organization, no matter what it took, and in whatever way possible. All he had to do was win the tournament and prize money, then he could purchase the parts needed to repair his ship.

With the extra one million credits left over, Lloyd planned to see if maybe he could even upgrade the armaments on his ship, equipped it with more powerful weapons and armor; he'd make it as powerful as a small dreadnaught if possible. The stronger the _Daphne_ was, the better chance Lloyd would have against the Black Shadow warships. Sighing with exhaustion and depression, Lloyd walked back into the guest room, closed the balcony doors, then fell onto the large bed and fell asleep.

...

...

Meanwhile out in space, the Black Shadow warship _Astaroth_ came out of subspace and entered orbit around Earth's moon; Captain Jadus Spade gazed at the big, blue and green Earth from the bridge of the large warship.

"Commander Basil, scan the Earth's surface for any traces of Lloyd Florence" he ordered his Commander.

"I'm scanning the surface now" Commander Basil informed, typing the command in on his console. As the ship scanned the surface of the Earth, Captain Jadus gazed upon it with burning desire as he thought of all the resources that would soon be his for the taking; he had seen footages of the surface and the Transwarp Gate machine. Although most of the technology used in Smashopolis, such as land vehicles, trains, and planes was all 21st century technology, the other sources of advanced technology from the other realms was what had grasped Captain Jadus's attention, especially the Transwarp Gate.

Once the key to the Seven Worlds was obtained, the search for the sacred jewel could begin. Once the jewel was found, the Black Shadow organization would have the power to conquer any world of their choosing, including Earth. Captain Jadus had always wondered if maybe the jewel wasn't needed to return to their own universe and maybe they could just use the Transwarp Gate on its own to return home; this theory was wrong. The Transwarp Gate was only capable of sending other objects into alternative realms or worlds from various alternate dimensions, but it couldn't transport objects into alternate universes, and that's why the Sacred Jewel was needed to make this possible.

"Captain, I've located Lloyd Florences ship" Commander Basil reported, looking up from his console.

"Where is it?" Captain Jadus asked.

"The sensors have located it in a large dry dock southeast of the city called Smashopolis" Commander Basil reported.

"Good, that means that Lloyd must be in the city somewhere" Captain Jadus replied. "Notify the engineering crew to prepare an armored fighter shuttle for departure. I shall lead a small assault team down to Earth to search the city for Lloyd's whereabouts; your in charge of the _Astaroth_ until I return".

"Yes Captain" Basil complied and Captain Jadus left the bridge and headed for the fighter shuttle bay. About ten minutes later, Captain Jadus and four armed assault team officers joined him in the shuttle bay where they entered an armored Demon-class fighter shuttle with the pilot, Corporal Frank Hild, waiting for them. The shuttle was approximately 10.5 meters long and resembled something close to a crab with two long arms equipped with super laser arrays, super photonic grenade launchers, and double plated armor over its black painted hull giving the whole shuttle an intimidating appearance.

"Once we approach the Earth, we'll need to activate the cloaking device to avoid detection by any spy satellites and military forces, then we'll find a suitable area to land the shuttle" Captain Jadus informed the fighter shuttle pilot.

"As you wish, Captain" Hild complied and then sealed the door to the shuttle and switched on the engines, then notified shuttle bay control to open the exit doors to space. Once the shuttle bay was pressurized, the exit doors opened and the fighter shuttle left the _Astaroth,_ heading for the Earth straight ahead.

"What's our ETA at Earth, Corporal Hild?" Captain Jadus asked.

"About ten minutes, Captain" Hild responded.

"Good, contact the _Death's Head_ and inform General Ridley that we're headed to Earth now; I don't want to keep him waiting," Captain Jadus ordered, gazing out the front viewport window. "He'll be quite eager to punish that meddlesome Lloyd Florence once he's become our prisoner".

...

...

"No... NO!" Lloyd cried out, bursting upward as he awoke from a horrible nightmare in a cold sweat; he had dreamed of that moment where he watched Lunara's warship being destroyed by the Black Shadow mothership _Death's Head._

"Lloyd, you all right?" a child's voice asked him; Lloyd turned to face the door and saw Ness in his PJ's coming into his room. He wiped cold sweat from his forehead and then switched on the bedside lamp.

"Ness," Lloyd sighed, rubbing his eyes. "What is it?".

"I heard you yelling in my room next door to yours and came in to see what the matter was" Ness replied, looking concerned.

"It was just a nightmare; I'm fine now" Lloyd assured Ness, stepping out of his bed and over to the window.

"It doesn't seem that way, Lloyd," Ness said doubtfully. "I can sense your emotions with my PSI, and I feel a deep sense of contempt, sorrow, and regret coming from you. Is there anything you want to tell me?". Lloyd felt a slight hint of embarrassment when he remembered that Ness was a telepath who could read emotions and control various elements, and Lloyd did not personal like the idea of his emotions being read by another person, let alone a child.

"It's none of your concern, so don't worry about me" Lloyd muttered sternly with his back facing Ness, who looked slightly hurt from Lloyd's rejection.

"I... I was only trying to help" Ness stammered.

"If I want help, then I'll ask for it," Lloyd snapped, turning around and pointing at the door. "Now get out and leave me alone!". Ness stepped back, startled from Lloyd's sudden outburst, but remained calm.

"I... fine..." Ness sighed and then left the room, not wanting to upset Lloyd any further. Once Ness shut the door, Lloyd turned back to the window and stared blankly at the city outside where he saw a few starships taking off from the Starship Dry Dock and heading out into the distance. As Lloyd watched various starships taking off, he thought of his own starship still down at the Starship Repair Yards, damaged and defenseless.

Lloyd didn't want to believe it, but deep down he knew that if he failed to win the upcoming tournament, there was a high possibility that the _Daphne_ would never travel through the stars again; Lloyd prayed that it wouldn't come to that. That ship was practically a second home to him, and losing it would be like losing a part of himself. But even if the _Daphne_ could never be repaired, Lloyd vowed never to scrape it; he'd find a way to preserve the ship in a place where he could always see it. Sighing, Lloyd walked back over to the bed and dropped down on it, falling asleep again and dreaming of his starship sailing among the stars again.

...

...

"Cloaking device is active; we're entering the Earth's atmosphere now" Corporal Hild reported as the fighter shuttle entered the planet's atmosphere.

"Look for an area near Smashopolis to hide the shuttle so that no one sees us once the cloaking device is deactivated. I don't want anyone getting suspicious" Captain Jadus ordered.

"Yes Captain" Hild replied as an enormous island came into view, and in the center of it was the city of Smashopolis lit up brightly for the night.

"Hide the shuttle in the forest area near the city so no one will see it" Jadus ordered.

"I've located a small bold spot in the forest about a mile away from the city," Hild reported, checked the scanner. "I'll land the shuttle there".

"Good, once we land, you shall remain with the shuttle while the guards go with me to find and capture Lloyd Florence" Jadus informed the pilot.

"Why not just kill him? He's been a big problem to our plans" one of the guards suggested.

"No, General Ridley wants him alive; he wants to properly punish Lloyd for meddling with our plans. If we kill him now, the General will be furious and may have us all executed" Jadus reminded the guard.

"I see," the guard grimaced. "Then we'd better find a way to capture Lloyd without killing him in the process". Corporal Hild slowed the shuttle's engines and then slowly landed it down on the bold spot in Smashopolis Forest, decloaking the shuttle in the process.

"You stay here on the shuttle until I return," Jadus ordered Corporal Hild, glancing over at the other two guards. "You four are with me, now let's get going". The guards followed Commander Basil out of the shuttle and into the dark forest, all of them heavily armed with laser rifles, hand grenades, laser revolvers, and war knives.

"Keep your eyes open for any suspicious things that might be lerking in these woods; we don't want to be found our" Jadus ordered firmly. The guards complied and kept their laser rifles close in hand as they followed their Captain through the forest, lit up by the light of the full moon shining brightly in the night sky. As they headed closer towards Smashopolis City, they heard a rustling sound in one of the nearby trees and quickly drew our their laser revolvers and held them at the ready.

"Who's out there? Show yourself!" Jadus called out into the dark forest, holding his own laser revolver tightly. The tree above them rustled and then the five of them saw someone jump out of it at a speed so quickly, they couldn't tell what it was. As the figure leapt into another tree, a second figure jumped out of the other tree and attempted to land in the same tree as the first figure, but then slipped on a branch and fell to the ground behind a raspberry bush. Captain Jadus heard the figure groan from the fall, which sounded like a man; he pointed to the bush.

"He's there behind that bush; shoot him!" Jadus shouted firmly, firing his laser revolver at the bush; the guards also opened fire on the bush, lighting up the area with red light from the laser beams fired from their guns.

"No! Moon Shadow!" A female voice cried out in horror; Jadus and his guards all looked up and saw a blonde haired girl in her early twenties jump down from the tree. She wore a pink and white sleeveless outfit with gloves of the same color and style, a pink ribbon in her hair, and she wielded a katana and ninja stars; it was Fawn Bell, a kunoichi from the hentai anime film _Karakuri Ninja Girl._

"How dare you hurt my lover, you heartless bastards!" Fawn Bell cried angrily, drawing her ninja stars.

"It's a ninja girl," one of the guards exclaimed. "What should we do, Captain?".

"Kill her, you fool!" Jadus hissed, aiming his gun and opening fire. As the guards fired at Fawn Bell, she quickly dodged the bullets and grabbed someone from behind the berry bush, then she threw several ninja stars at them. Jadus shot two of the stars headed for his chest, but the guards were unlucky and got hit in their heads with several other ninja stars, killing them where they stood.

"Arrgh, damn you little ninja bitch! Your going to pay for killing my comrades!" Captain Jadus yelled angrily, firing everything he could at Fawn Bell as she jumped through each tree, carrying what looked like a man in a dark green ninja suit in her arms.

"I don't think so," Fawn Bell yelled back, jumping down from the tree and setting the man in her arms down on the ground. "You should be ashamed of yourself for hurting Moon Shadow. Just who do you think you are?!".

"Someone who's going to make you pay for killing his comrades, that's who" Captain Jadus hissed angrily, firing his laser revolver at Fawn Bell, who dodged the blasts and then rushed forward with her ninja sword drawn. Jadus quickly sheathed his laser revolver and drew out his long bladed assassins knife as Fawn Bell charged towards him and attempted to slash him to pieces with her sword. Jadus blocked several of Fawn Bells slashes, then slashed her on the side of her face with his assassins knife, catching her off guard.

But Fawn Bell wasn't giving up there. She quickly drew out two ninja stars and threw them at Jadus, who dodged them quickly and attempted to stab her, but Fawn Bell acted quickly and then threw a ninja smoke bomb at Jadus's feet which exploded in a cloud of dark grey smoke all around him. Blinded by the smoke, Jadus couldn't see where Fawn Bell was, but as he waved some of the smoke away from his head, he caught a brief glimpse of her jumping away to safety in the distance with Moon Shadow in her arms.

"Damn it," Jadus cursed, rushing out of the smoke and coughing. "I can't let her get away!". He fired several shots at the trees, trying to hit Fawn Bell and Moon Shadow, but they escaped easily with their ninja speed. Basil was outraged as he watched them escape, losing any chance of eliminating witnesses to his arrival.

He had no doubt that they would tell the public that they had been attacked by some violent men in the forest, and if that happened, there'd be big trouble. Basil quickly contacted Corporal Hild and explained the situation to him, then informed him to ready the fighter shuttle for flight once he returned. Once Jadus got his hands on that ninja girl, he'd make her pay for murdering his away team, and her friend she called Moon Shadow. After a few minutes of walking, Jadus had returned to the fighter shuttle and ordered Corporal Hild to start searching the city for the two ninjas that attacked him and killed his away team, but he hesitated as they took off into the sky and cloaked the shuttle.

"Is there a problem? I _said_ start scanning the city for those two ninjas; we can't let them spread the word about us being here to the public" Captain Jadus ordered sternly.

"Captain, our orders were to find and capture Lloyd Florence, not those ninjas" Corporal Hild reminded him.

"I'm perfectly aware of that, but we can't let them live after seeing us here in the forest," Jadus snapped. "They'll rat us out to the public and possibly alert Lloyd to our presence here".

"Captain, I understand that those ninjas could be a problem, but we have to stick to our orders that General Ridley gave us. The more time we spend searching for those ninjas, the less time we'll have to complete our mission, and the General will not tolerate any of us wasting time" Corporal Hild insisted, flying the shuttle slowly over the forest.

Captain Jadus was very pissed off for having a lower ranking crew member of the _Astaroth_ question his orders, but he knew that Hild was right. He had to focus on the mission that General Ridley had assigned to him, and that was to capture Lloyd Florence and send him over to the _Death's Head_ for General Ridley to deal with. And now that Jadus thought about it, even if those two ninjas told someone else about the incident down in the forest, no one would find the ones responsible for attacking them.

The fighter shuttle was completely cloaked and the engines were running in stealth mode, making it almost impossible for anyone to find it. When running in stealth mode, the engines would make almost no noise at all while running, which meant that no one would be able to hear them unless they had ears as good as an elephants ears; this was only possible when the shuttle was cloaked.

"Very well," Jadus sighed in defeat. "Continue our search for Lloyd Florence; we'll have to deal with those ninjas some other time".

...

...

"Ugh, Fawn Bell," Moon Shadow groaned painfully, waking up from his unconsciousness. "Where are we?".

"We're in the large storage shed of a huge mansion," Fawn Bell answered as she refilled a gas lamp with oil, lighting up the inside of the shed. "I used my healing ninjitsu to heal your wounds from those laser guns, but some of the wounds near your chest wouldn't heal all the way, so you'll need to avoid any heavy action for awhile".

"Yeah, those guys took me completely by surprise," Moon Shadow agreed, sitting up and viewing his surroundings. He found that the shed was filled with various landscaping equipment such as a gas powered leaf blower, gas line trimmer, a diesel powered SCAG riding mower, gas powered hedge trimmer, gas powered Echo Timberwolf chainsaw, and an assortment of rakes, hula hoes, shovels, compost bin, and a machete. There were also a few storage crates and several fuel cans lined up against the right side of the shed where Fawn Bell sat, keeping her oil lamp at a safe distance away from them. "This shed is pretty big; I wonder who lives in the mansion outside it".

"I'm not sure who lives in it since I rushed to get you into a safe place; I just happened to find this mansion by chance" Fawn Bell said.

"Why don't we see if anyone's home," Moon Shadow suggested. "They might be able to provide medical assistance and a place to stay for the night. It'll sure beat staying out here in a storage shed all night, and its cold in here too".

"That sounds like a good idea," Fawn Bell agreed. "I'll go see if anyone's home and you stay in here until I return". Moon Shadow nodded and Fawn Bell walked out of the shed and onto the enormous lawn which was moist from the cold night air. She jumped over the pool and across the grass in two single jumps with her ninja skills, then landed near the front door where she prepared to ring the door bell, but then Fawn Bell found a note taped to the button which said "OUT OF ORDER".

"Looks like I'd better knock then," Fawn Bell said, knocking on the door and hoping someone would answer, but the smashers were so fast asleep that they didn't hear a thing from downstairs, which began to frustrate Fawn Bell. "Come on, someone answer already".

She knocked even harder, but there was still no response from inside the mansion, which made Fawn Bell wonder if anyone was home or not. After a few more knocks, Fawn Bell was about to go back to the shed when she heard the lock on the door click, and then it opened to reveal a robot standing at the entrance; it was R.O.B.

"Greetings, who are you?" R.O.B asked curiously.

"I'm Fawn Bell from the Ninja Kingdom," Fawn Bell began. "My boyfriend Moon Shadow and I were attacked by some strange men in black in a large forest several miles from here. They shot him with laser guns and hit several of his vital organs and he needs medical help right away before the damage becomes too severe to treat". R.O.B looked over in the direction of the shed and then his sensors detected a human male with critical life signs.

"His life signs are near critical," R.O.B said, already moving. "We must get him to Smashopolis Hospital right away".

"Hey, what's-a going on-a?" Mario asked, coming downstairs to find R.O.B and Fawn Bell exiting the mansion.

R.O.B turned his head around to face Mario as he followed them outside. "We have a guest who's friend has been hurt. He's going to need medical attention quickly".

"Medical attention? I can help with-a that," Mario offered, then he quickly transformed into his alter ego, Dr. Mario. "Dr. Mario is at your service". The courageous doctor followed Fawn Bell and R.O.B into the shed where they found Moon Shadow laying against a storage crate next to the riding mower, clutching his chest wounds.

"Huh? Who are you guys?" Moon Shadow asked weakly.

"These two guys live inside that mansion; they're here to help," Fawn Bell answered, looking back at them. "By the way, I never got your names".

"Oh, right," R.O.B said, forgetting his manners. "I'm R.O.B, and this here is Mario".

"That's-a Dr. Mario, actually," Dr. Mario corrected, turning his attention to Moon Shadow. "I'm-a the best-a doctor in the Smash-a Mansion; so, let's-a take a look at-a your lover here". Dr. Mario opened the front of Moon Shadows ninja tunic and examined the laser blast wounds on his chest.

"Is he going to live, Dr. Mario?" Fawn Bell asked worriedly; Dr. Mario pulled out his stethoscope and took a closer look at Moon Shadow's wounds, then looked up at Fawn Bell.

"He's going to need-a full medical attention at-a Smash Hospital right away," Dr. Mario replied urgently. "He's got a deep-a wound near his heart, and a damaged lung. We'd better send-a word for an ambulance right away".

"I'll send an alert message to Smash Hospital with my communications system and tell them we need help," R.O.B informed, extending his antenna from his head. The three heard the robots communication system beeping in the form of Morse code and then he lowered his antenna. "An ambulance is on the way; I just sent an SOS signal to Smash Hospital and they've notified me that they're sending help".

"How soon will they get here?" Fawn Bell asked.

"In about ten minutes," R.O.B answered. "Smash Hospital is about two miles from here, so the paramedics shouldn't take too long to get here". As the group waited inside the shed for the ambulance, they were unaware of the danger outside. The cloaked Black Shadow fighter shuttle was currently flying overhead in stealth mode, searching the dry dock for Lloyd's starship.

"Have you located the dry dock? It should be around here in this area somewhere" Captain Jadus questioned impatiently.

"Yes," Hild replied, checking the scanner. "It's just up ahead".

"Good, continue on our present course and search for Lloyd's ship," Jadus ordered calmly. "Remember, his ship is a Greyhawk class vessel, so keep your eyes open". As the cloaked shuttle headed towards the dry dock, they passed slowly over Smash Mansion where Jadus saw someone standing coming out of a large shed near an inground pool with what looked like a robot. At first, Jadus didn't notice who it was, but when the figure standing next to the robot switched on a porchlight near the shed door, he recognized the person as the ninja girl who had attacked and killed his guards.

"What the-!? Stop the shuttle!" Jadus barked. Corporal Hild quickly stopped the shuttle and then kept it hovering in midair.

"What is it, Captain?".

"It's that ninja girl! The one who attacked me and killed my men in the forest," Jadus growled angrily, the humiliation of defeat returning to him. "Decloak the shuttle and bring all weapon systems online, then target that bitch; this time, I'm going to finish her off for good!".

"Are you sure that's what we should do? The public might-" Hild protested.

"To hell with the public! I want that ninja girl dead! Now shut down the cloaking system and bring weapons on line!" Captain Jadus shouted impatiently.

"Very well, Captain" Hild sighed in defeat and then proceeded on shutting down the cloaking device. Captain Jadus jeered at Fawn Bell as the cloaking system was deactivated, promising to make her pay for daring to ever mess with him.

* * *

 **A/N: Not much to say here, only that the stories going to get more interesting in the future, so until then, I bid you all farewell for now.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hey there all you Smash Bros fans, the sixth chapter is finally up after one very busy month. The reason for this delayed update is due to my RCC class and my landscaping job, but like I've promised in the past: I won't give up. So read, review, and enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are all that I own.**

* * *

Chapter 6: Attack On Smash Mansion

"Shuttle decloaking; lasers cannons and photonic grenade launchers online" Corporal Hild reported as the fighter shuttle decloaked. Down below, Dr. Mario, R.O.B, and Fawn Bell, all looked up at the black and grey colored fighter shuttle as it fully decloaked itself and charged it's weapon systems.

"Mama mia! What is-a that?" Dr. Mario exclaimed in surprise just as the shuttle opened fire on them. The whole group dodged the purple laser beams just as they struck the ground, blasted a large sizzling crater in the soil.

"Its definitely hostile, that's what," Fawn Bell answered, drawing out her ninja stars. "We'd better take that ship out".

"Hostile enemy confirmed; activating combat systems" R.O.B beeped, switching into combat mode and powering up his weapon systems.

 **("Main Theme" from _Attack On Titan_ plays through this passage)**

"Lets-a go!" Dr. Mario said and tossed a large capsule at the shuttle, which dodged it and fired green glowing photonic grenades at the group. R.O.B targeted the shuttle's left crab like arm and then fired a powerful laser blast at it. The beam struck the shuttle head on, but it did minimal damage to its armored hull, and so did Dr. Mario's and Fawn Bells attack.

"That ships armor is way too strong; I don't think we can stop it!" Fawn Bell panicked just as Moonshadow walked weakly out of the shed to see what all the noise was outside.

"Hey, what's all the racket out here?" He demanded, looking around. As Corporal Hild was about to fire upon the group, his attention turned to Moonshadow.

"Captain, there's another one that just came out of the shed" he pointed out.

"Another one? Who could it-," Captain Jadus paused short when he saw who it was, and then an incandescent expression came over his face. "Its him! It's that ninja girls boyfriend! Kill him!". The group below then watched as the shuttle shifted direction and aimed it's weaponized arms at Moonshadow, powering up its laser arrays and preparing to fire upon him.

"Moonshadow!" Fawn Bell cried out and then ran in front of him to shield him from the laser beams that came firing straight towards them both. Fawn Bell used a ninjutsu spell which formed a shield bubble around them both, protecting them from the laser blasts. As the smashers used their own attacks on the shuttle, an ambulance siren suddenly blared nearby; the paramedics had arrived, and at the worst time!

"Oh no," Dr. Mario exclaimed, glancing back at the mansions roundabout drive where he saw the ambulance pulling in. "The paramedics are here! They'll be attacked!". Sure enough, the shuttle flew over to the left and fired several photonic grenades at the ambulance which was struck head on. A massive explosion occurred as the ambulance was blown into smithereens, leaving only a burning skeleton of metal left in its place. The sound of the explosion woke the other smashers inside the mansion, including Lloyd, who quickly burst up in bed from his sleep at the sound of the explosion.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Lloyd muttered as he rushed over to the window and saw what was going on outside. He saw Dr. Mario, R.O.B, and two others he didn't know being attacked by what looked like a crab like ship flying above the large lawn outside. Lucas and Ness had rushed downstairs into the game room and saw the large fighter shuttle attacking their friends, Dr. Mario and R.O.B through the window.

"Holy crap! What is that thing?" Ness exclaimed in shock.

"It looks like a ship of some sort, and a hostile one at that" Lucas replied.

"We'd gotta help our friends," Ness declared, rushing for the front door. "Lucas, come on! We have to save R.O.B and Dr. Mario". Lucas quickly followed Ness outside where Dr. Mario, R.O.B, and Fawn Bell were trying to fight off the fighter shuttle attacking them.

"Hey, who are those two?" Lucas asked, pointing at Moonshadow and Fawn Bell.

"No idea, I've never seen them before," Ness replied. "But it doesn't matter right now; they need our help".

"Yeah, let's stop that ugly looking ship" Lucas declared and charged his PSI powers; Ness did the same thing. Several other smashers also rushed outside through the back exit door and saw the ship firing at Fawn Bell and Moonshadow, along with their other fellow smashers; it was Ike, Fox, Metaknight, Kirby, Zelda, Link, Elsa, and Robot Chicken.

"What kind of ship is that?" Ike exclaimed, drawing his sword.

"Bok, bok bok bok (I have no idea)" Robot Chicken clucked.

"Its certainly not one of Andross's ships, that's for sure" Fox replied, drawing his blaster.

"Whoever's it is doesn't matter, we've got to stop it before it attacks the mansion next" Metaknight declared, spreading his wings and heading straight for the shuttle with his sword in hand. He then landed on the top of the shuttle and began slashing away at its armored hull, which held easily against Metaknight's attacks.

"That damned creature! Raise the shields!" Captain Jadus snapped.

"Raising shields" the Corporal reported. As the shuttle's shields went up, Metaknight was thrown off by the shield energy which surrounded the whole shuttle and thrown onto the ground.

"Metaknight!" Kirby cried out as he saw his friend thrown to the ground and knocked out. Robot Chicken switched his cyborg wing into a rocket launcher and fired several rockets at the shuttle which struck the shields, causing no damage. Elsa cast an ice beam attack which froze a mound of ice over the shields, then exploded into shards, causing minimal damage to the shields.

"What's the shield status?" Captain Jadus demanded.

"Shields are down to 80% and holding minimally," Corporal Hild reported. "These beings are apparently stronger than I thought".

"Then return fire, you fool! Take those meddling pests out with the ninjas before they overpower us!" Captain Jadus snapped impatiently. The shuttle then fired more photonic grenades at the smashers, who acted quickly to defend themselves.

"Watch out!" Elsa cried out, casting an ice shield in front of the smashers, which saved them from being hit by the photonic grenades. Kirby summoned his flying star and then zoomed towards the shuttle, preparing to attack it with his final cutter attack, but Captain Jadus was prepared for this and gained the upper hand.

"Shoot that pink creature now! Fire the lasers!" Captain Jadus commanded. The Corporal targeted Kirby and fired the shuttle's lasers at him, which he was able to avoid at the first few shots, but the last one struck Kirby head on and sent him flying off into the city.

"Kirby, no!" Ike cried out as Kirby vanished in the distance.

"Not Kirby, you bastards!" Ness yelled, casting PK Fire at the shuttle and missing it.

"Excellent shot, Hild; take out the rest of those fools" Captain Jadus said proudly. Zelda quickly cast Din's Fire at the shuttle, weakening its shields even further, but it still faught back even harder. It fired its lasers at the smashers again and again, striking Ike, Robot Chicken, Zelda, and Fox. They were all thrown back and heavily injured from the blasts, leaving only Link, Ness, R.O.B, Lucas, Fawn Bell, Dr. Mario, and Elsa standing.

"This ships shields are too strong," Fawn Bell panted, growing weak from exhaustion. "Our attacks just aren't doing enough damage".

"My laser energy is running low" R.O.B added.

"I can't-a take much-a more of this-a" Dr. Mario panted, trying to catch his breath.

"What are we going to do then? By the time we damage the ship enough to take out its shields, it will have taken the mansion out by then" Link asked, running out of options.

"I know something that might work," Lucas suggested, then he began building up PSI energy for his most powerful PSI attack. "Better stand back, cause this is gonna be a big one". From inside the shuttle, Captain Jadus noticed the radiant glow emitting from Lucas as he prepared to unleash his most powerful PSI attack, then he heard one of the consoles chirping.

"Captain, I'm detecting a massive amount of energy coming from that boy" Corporal Hild reported.

"What's the source?" The Captain asked curiously.

"Unknown, but the shuttle's sensors indicate that it's a strong form of psychic energy" the Corporal replied.

"Then take him out before he attacks us," Captain Jadus demanded. "Arm photonic grenades and kill him!". Hild locked onto Lucas and armed the photonic grenades, then he prepared to fire.

"Target locked, firing now".

But the two of them were far too slow to see what was coming next. Before Corporal Hild could fire the weapons, Lucas unleashed his most powerful PSI attack he had ever learned.

"PK LOVE OMEGA!" Lucas cried, and then the ground rumbled as he fired an enormously powerful blast of energy at the shuttle, striking it head on with a force so powerful, it sent the shuttle flying backwards, causing a massive amount of damage to its internal systems.

"Report, Corporal Hild!" Captain Jadus demanded as the shuttle stabilized itself; warning alarms were going off all around them.

"Direct hit; massive damage to the port side and rear engines," Hild reported. "Shields are down along with the cloaking device and the photonic grenade launchers. Secondary shields are offline along with communication systems and targeting systems. That attack that boy used is powerful, Captain; we can't take another hit from that".

"Damn it," Captain Jadus growled angrily. "What about the hull armor and laser arrays?".

"The armor took heavy damage from the blast, but it's still holding. The laser arrays are still online, but are too low on power to fire. The engines are down to 30% capacity, giving us only enough power to escape" Hild reported; Captain Jadus was furious! With damage this severe, the shuttle was practically dead in the water with only enough power to move at half impulse.

"Damn it all to hell! That's not even enough power to get us off this damned planet," Captain Jadus seethed, then sighed in defeat. "Get us out of here and find a safe place to hide the shuttle. We'll deal with these brats once the damage is repaired". As Corporal Hild prepared to take the shuttle out of danger, Ness prepared to finish it off using his signature PSI attack, which was almost as powerful as PK Love. The shuttle's warning sensors began chirping as Ness charged his attack.

"Captain, we're in trouble! Sensors are detecting another powerful aura of energy coming from that other kid, and its almost as powerful as that last one that hit us" Corporal Hild reported in a frightened tone of voice.

"No! Get us out of here, now!" Captain Jadus commanded. Corporal Hild applied as much power as he could to the engines to try and escape, but Ness was too fast for them.

"PK Rockin' Omega!" He cried out, unleashing an enormous blast of rainbow colored psychic energy at the shuttle.

"ITS COMING! GET US AWAY FROM HERE!" Captain Jadus thundered.

"Too late! It's coming too fast; brace for impact!" Hild cried out just as the blast hit them. The force of the attack was so powerful that it blew the left side of the shuttle apart, causing it to lose power and descend to the ground where it crashed into the large wall near the entrance and exit gate. Inside, several consoles caught fire as Captain Jadus scrambled back on his feet while Corporal Hild tried putting out the flames with a fire suppression tank filled with foam.

 **(Music Ends)**

"Put that down! There's no use in putting these flames out; this ships finished! Grab our assault weapons and let's get out of here before the shuttle blows sky high" Jadus snapped, knocking the tank out of Hild's hands. Outside the shuttle, some of the other smashers and guest smashers inside the mansion came outside to see what was going on; Anna, Peach, Captain Falcon, Giana, Maria, Samus, Snake, Rosalina, and Pit were among them.

"Whoa, what the heck is that thing?" Giana exclaimed, gazing at the mangled shuttle, now on fire in the rear end.

"Looks like a ship, or what's left of it" her twin sister Maria replied.

"Elsa, you all right?" Anna called out, rushing up to her sister, who turned around at the sound of Anna's voice.

"Yeah, just a little exhausted" Elsa replied, feeling a bit dizzy from using so much energy. Just then, the shuttle's top hatch flew open and then Captain Jadus and Corporal Hild came storming out.

"Its the pilots! Stop them!" Fawn Bell cried, pointing at them. As the smashers prepared to attack, the two Black Shadow pilots quickly began firing their laser rifles at them. Their rebellious attempt proved futile however since they were outnumbered and outmatched. R.O.B had just enough power to fire a widespread laser blast at the two Black Shadow thugs, set to heavy stun, which caught them by surprise. The red laser beams hit the two of them square in the chest and stunned them instantly, and then Captain Jadus and Corporal Hild collapsed to the ground, dropping their weapons in the process.

"Yeah! Great shot, R.O.B!" Link cheered.

"Glad to... be... of... service" R.O.B stuttered from power loss, then he slumped forward and shut down; his power cells had been completely exhausted.

"Oh no, is he all right?" Anna asked in concern.

"Yeah, his power cells just need to be recharged," Ness replied, hoisting R.O.B up by his left arm. "I'll return him to his charging port to recharge his power cells; come give me a hand, Lucas". As Ness and Lucas carried R.O.B into the mansion, the other smashers approached Captain Jadus and Corporal Hild, who were laying face down and unconscious on the ground just six feet away from their destroyed shuttle with its rear end engulfed in flames.

"Who are these men, and why did they attack us?" Elsa wondered.

"I don't know, but one things for sure, they're certainly not friendly" Link replied grimly.

"What should we do with them?" Dr. Mario asked curiously.

"Lets see what their faces look like," Fawn Bell suggested, approaching the two thugs. "They fired at me first, so I want to know who they are and what they want with me". Just as she was about to turn them over, she was interrupted.

"Step away from those bastards, now!" A male voice bellowed angrily from the front door of the mansion; it was Lloyd, and he had an expression of pure hatred on his face.

"Lloyd!" Link exclaimed, stepping out of Lloyd's way as he stormed across the large lawn and up to the two unconscious pilots.

"What's with the cold glare? Your acting like you know these two" Samus asked in concern.

" _I_ know who they are," Lloyd hissed coldly, glaring down at the two pilots. "I caught a small glimpse of the emblem on the side of their shuttle, and its the symbol of the Black Shadow organization. That means that these two are working with the Black Shadow organization!". Shocked expressions came over the smashers faces as they glanced over at the shuttle, now completely engulfed in flames.

"Um, excuse me," Fawn Bell asked curiously. "What is this Black Shadow organization?". Lloyd turned to the female ninja, not recognizing her as one of the smashers.

"And who are you? I don't remember you being one of the guest smashers" he asked curiously.

"I'm Fawn Bell, a kunoichi from the Ninja Kingdom," Fawn Bell answered. "Me and my lover Moonshadow were hiding in the shed waiting for medical assistance when that ship suddenly showed up and attacked us".

"I see," Lloyd said, growing more suspicious as he looked down at the unconscious pilots on the ground. "And did they happen to be wearing the same uniforms as these pilots here?". Fawn Bell looked closely at the black imperial style uniforms on the pilots, which were battered and filthy from the soil and smoke, then she pushed Captain Jadus over onto his back and saw his face, and then gasped in horror.

"My God, it's him! He's the one that shot Moonshadow and attacked me!" Fawn Bell gasped.

"Damn it," Lloyd cursed angrily, kicking Captain Jadus. "I _knew_ this would happen! Those Black Shadow bastards just _never_ give up!".

"Lloyd, calm down," Peach urged Lloyd calmly. "Who are these men, and what exactly is going on?". Lloyd tried to calm himself, but the pandemonium of this whole situation made it hard for him to do so.

"These men that attacked you and your lover are members of an extremely dangerous space criminal organization called Black Shadow, lead by their evil General named Ridley Farcus. They're possibly the most dangerous, destructive force of evil that the galaxy has ever known..." Lloyd began in a grim tone of voice, then he explained his whole story about the Black Shadow organization and about all the crimes they had committed back in his own universe, and about what they had done to his ship out in deep space after the USF fleet was obliterated, along with his lover Lunara. It was a long and distressing story, and when Lloyd finally finished, Fawn Bell and the guest smashers were all filled with melancholy and shock.

"Oh Lloyd, that's horrible," Peach exclaimed sadly, wiping a tear from her eye. "How could anyone do something so terrible. Just what kind of people are they?".

"They're pure evil, that's who they are," Lloyd answered darkly. "They've conquered a countless number of planets and enslaved its inhabitants, forcing them to serve their organization against their will. Those that refused to submit would be wiped out of existence with nuclear weapons".

"Is that why they've come here to our world? Are they going to attack Smashopolis as well?" Captain Falcon asked fearfully.

"That's what it looks like, and this shuttle was only the start of it," Lloyd looked over at the burning remains of the shuttle. "I think the Black Shadow must have been down here looking for me because I was the one who forced their fleet to retreat from Avalon Prime back in my own universe, and now that they know I'm here, Ridley will probably send more troops down here to try and kill me for revenge. I don't know if the Black Shadow intends to conquer this world, but if they do, then God help us all".

"So your saying that the reason the Black Shadow organization is coming here is because they're after you?" Rosalina asked.

"Yes, that's the only logical answer, or I could also be right about them wanting to conquer this world and subdue it for its resources. Either way, I've got to find a way to stop them," Lloyd declared. "Before I can do that though, I'll need to win this tournament and the prize credits to obtain the parts I need to repair it. And I'll also need to find out just what the Black Shadow is planning to do next. If they're planning to invade Smashopolis, then I'll need to find a way to alert the remaining USF fleet back on planet Genesis to send any remaining reinforcements they have left".

"We'll help too, Lloyd," Pit offered. "Smashopolis is our world too, in edition to our own home worlds, so we'll do whatever we can to fight back if it comes to that".

"Yeah, let's-a do it!" Dr. Mario cheered, and the other smashers also agreed to help as well.

"All right then," Lloyd then turned his attention back down to Captain Jadus and Corporal Hild, who were still unconscious. "I want the one that attacked Fawn Bell alive so I can interrogate him for information, but as for the other one... he's of no use to me". What Lloyd did next terrified the smashers. He whipped out his laser gun from his pants, aimed it at Corporal Hild, and then fired a powerful laser blast at his head which blew it to pieces, splattering blood, gore, and brains all over the ground; the smashers all cried out in horror.

"Mama mia!" Dr. Mario exclaimed in total shock.

"Lloyd," Samus cried in horror. "What the hell did you do that for?!".

"Dude, that was totally uncalled for!" Giana exclaimed in disgust.

"I could never have let him live, or he'd find a way to send word for help," Lloyd snapped, hoisting Captain Jadus over his shoulder. "He was too dangerous to be left alive, and besides, he got what he deserved". The smashers all exchanged disturbed glances of concern at each other as Lloyd carried Captain Jadus into the mansion.

"Well, _that_ was unexpected," Snake said, looking down at the lifeless body of Corporal Hild. "I certainly didn't see that coming".

"I can't blame him for doing that," Samus replied in admittance. "After everything the Black Shadow organization did to his family, his lover, and his fleet, I can understand why he'd hate them so much".

"Yeah, but he didn't have to go and blow the guys head off" Giana retorted in disgust.

"That's so not cool" Maria added. Just then, the sound of sirens erupted through the night as fire engines approached the mansion, along with police cars, a new ambulance, and the other smashers that had been thrown out of the mansion lawn by the fighter shuttle; it was Ike, Zelda, Robot Chicken, Kirby, and Fox.

"Zelda!" Link cried in relief as he saw the Hyrulian princess rushing towards him through the front gate.

"Oh Link," Zelda sighed in relief as she embraced Link tightly. "I was so afraid that you and the others had been hurt".

"Nope, still strong as ever" Link boasted as they separated.

"I'm glad you guys took down that ship," Fox said, meeting up with the smashers. "After me and the others were thrown out of the mansion from those laser blasts, we went for help as soon as we could".

"Bok, bok bok bok, bok! (whoa, what a mess! I'm glad you guys are all right)" Robot Chicken clucked in relief after seeing all the destruction around the lawn inflicted by the fighter shuttle.

"Metaknight!" Kirby cried out, rushing over to his friend under a tree near the shed, who was just regaining consciousness.

"Ohh, what happened?" Metaknight groaned as he sat up.

"You got thrown off that ship when it's shields went up," Kirby said, helping his friend up. "You don't have to worry about it anymore though; it's been destroyed, and everyone's all right". Metaknight looked over at the remains of the shuttle, which was being blasted with water from the water cannons on the fire engines, then sighed with relief.

"That's a relief; I thought we were all done for then" Metaknight said, relieved that the shuttle had been stopped. Over near the ambulance, Fawn Bell watched as Moonshadow was lifted onto the stretcher bed and wheeled into the ambulance by paramedics, then she followed them inside.

"Will he live?" The worried Kunoichi asked the chief medical officer as two other paramedics shut the ambulance doors.

"He's lost quite a bit of blood from the laser blast wounds on his chest, and his internal organs received minor damage, but he should heal overtime with proper treatment and a blood transfusion" the officer reported.

"Thank God," Fawn Bell sighed in relief, looking down at Moonshadow, who had lost consciousness due to blood loss. "I thought I'd lost him". As the ambulance drove off into the night, the police questioned several of the other smashers about what had happened at the mansion. Dr. Mario explained everything about how the shuttle suddenly decloaked above the storage shed as they were waiting for the paramedics and attacked them, but he left out the part about Lloyd shooting Corporal Hild since he didn't want Lloyd to get into trouble; he claimed that Lloyd killed him in self-defense, which the police seemed to fall for.

"And who is this Lloyd Florence?" The chief investigator asked curiously.

"He's a space marine from another universe that we rescued from deep space," Samus explained. "That ship that attacked the mansion was after him, but we managed to stop it and capture the lead pilot; Lloyd killed the other one in self-defense".

"Where's the lead pilot? Is he around here?" The officer asked.

"Lloyd dragged him into the mansion to interrogate him for information" Samus answered. Meanwhile inside the Smash Mansion basement, Lloyd had locked the door and tied Captain Jadus to a metal chair that he'd dragged into the center of the dimly lit basement to insure he wouldn't get away. Captain Jadus was bleeding from his nose and mouth as Lloyd struck him on each side of his head with his fists, trying to force him to spill his secrets.

"You gonna talk now, you Black Shadow scum?!" Lloyd snarled, striking Captain Jadus again, who only spat at him.

"Go fuck yourself in the ass, space boy!" Captain Jadus sneered defiantly. Outraged by this crude mockery, Lloyd let out an angry yell and punched the Black Shadow pilot hard in the chest, seething with rage.

"So _that's_ how it is," he glared at Captain Jadus with utmost hatred. "Then I guess I'm going to have to get tough on you!". Lloyd then looked over at an old, beat up work bench where he saw a plumbers wrench, large pliers, hacksaw, drill, a battery powered Ryobi circular saw, and a car battery with electric cables sitting on the top of it.

"Oh, I'm _all_ shook up," Captain Jadus taunted as Lloyd walked up to the old bench. "What are you gonna do? Talk me to death?".

"No," Lloyd hissed, grabbing the plumbers wrench. "I'm going to do... THIS!". He then swung the wrench down and smashed it into Captain Jadus's right kneecap, shattering it on impact.

"AUUGH, FUUUUCK!" Captain Jadus screamed in agony.

"Yeah, not so tough now," Lloyd snarled, grabbing Jadus by the scruff of his uniform and yanking him forward. "Your either going to tell me what I want to know, or your other kneecap gets it!". Jadus clenched his teeth in agony, trying to endure the excruciating pain from his shattered kneecap, but he was still resistant.

"FUCK YOU!" Captain Jadus yelled, spitting at Lloyd's feet and struggling to get free. This proved to be a bad move, because this only made Lloyd angrier; he raised the wrench and smashed Jadus's other kneecap.

"I warned you! Unless you start talking, it's gonna get worse than this," Lloyd threatened coldly. "Now where is the Black Shadow fleet and what is General Ridley planning?! Start talking!". Jadus only whispered a reply while trying to compensate the agony from having his kneecaps shattered.

"What's that?" Lloyd growled, leaning in towards the Black Shadow captain. "I can't hear you, so you'd better speak up unless your prepared for more pain". Jadus inhaled and exhaled deeply, then he looked up at Lloyd with a fearful expression on his face. Despite his training in the past to endure extreme pain and agony, Jadus had never experienced pain at this level, yet he was still hesitant even now.

"I... I can't remember!" Jadus lied, moaning in pain, but Lloyd only grew more and more impatient and angry. He threw down the wrench and then grabbed the electric cables attached to the car battery near the work bench, then he held them up in front of Jadus.

"Then maybe a few jolts will jog that memory of yours!" Lloyd snarled, jabbing the electrodes into Jadus's chest, shocking him with high volts of electricity.

"Arrgh! Stop! AUUGH!" Captain Jadus screamed as the electrodes jolted his whole body, including his shattered kneecaps.

"The shocking stops once you tell me where General Ridley and his fleet are and what their planning!" Lloyd snapped impatiently, jabbing the Black Shadow captain again.

"I'm telling you nothing! ARRRGH!" Captain Jadus yelled, writhing in agony. Growling in incandescent frustration, Lloyd tossed the cables aside and glared at the evil pilot with malice and hate.

"It seems you just don't know when to break, do you?!" He growled coldly. "Then it seems I'm going to have to take this to the hardcore level". Lloyd then walked over to the work bench and picked the circular saw up, then he walked back over to Jadus, who looked terrified.

"N-No! Please, don't!" He pleaded in fear.

"Here's how it's going to go," Lloyd glared at Captain Jadus, holding the saw in front of him. "Your going to give me the answers to my questions, and if you refuse, its going to cost you your limbs, got it?!". Jadus trembled in fear as Lloyd held the power saw above his left shoulder; he knew at this point that Lloyd was not bluffing, but his arrogance still prevailed over his fear.

"I... c-can't!" Jadus yelled.

"Ah, what a shame," Lloyd growled coldly. "Then I guess you won't mind losing your limbs, will you?!". He then squeezed the trigger and switched on the saw, which powered up with a loud whirring sound, then Lloyd lowered the spinning blade near Captain Jadus's shoulder.

"No... NO! All right, all right! I'll talk! Please stop!" Jadus pleaded just as the blade touched his shoulder, sending a small shower of blood spraying on the wall. Lloyd switched off the saw and then lowered it once Jadus finally submitted.

"I'm listening" Lloyd replied, still clutching the saw in his hand.

"Ridley and his fleet are located near Earth's moon, and he wants you dead!" Jadus yelled, struggling.

"Is that why you and that other one I killed are here? To kill me?" Lloyd demanded.

"You... you killed Corporal Hild?!" Jadus gasped in horror.

"You didn't answer my question," Lloyd growled, raising the saw up again. "Did Ridley send you here to kill me?! I want an answer, now!".

"No, he wanted you captured and taken to the _Death's Head_ alive! That's all I know!" Jadus insisted, but Lloyd knew that wasn't the case. He saw fear in Jadus's eyes and that told Lloyd that he was lying.

"Don't lie to me, you Black Shadow bastard!", Lloyd shouted, raising the saw again. "You'd better tell me what that bastard Ridley is planning unless you intend on losing your limbs!". Jadus struggled as Lloyd put pressure on the trigger, fearing for his life as he felt the sharp blade press against his shoulder.

"WAIT! Wait! Ridley _did_ tell me that he found a way to send our organization back to our original universe" Jadus yelled, breathing heavily. Lloyd felt a tingle of fear when Jadus mentioned that.

"Does it have to do with the Transwarp Gate in the center of the city?" Lloyd demanded.

"Yes! He wants to use it to send us back to our own universe, but he needs the key to the Seven Worlds and the Sacred Jewel to make it happen" Jadus admitted, trembling with fear.

"What do you mean? What is this key to the Seven Worlds and this Sacred Jewel? And what do those things have to do with it?" Lloyd demanded impatiently.

"They will allow the Transwarp Gate to send people and objects into alternative universes rather than dimensions, and Ridley wants them to return us to our own universe, that's his plan" Jadus confessed, still moaning in pain.

"So that's why he's here, isn't it? Ridley is here to search for this key and jewel to get back home" Lloyd questioned coldly.

"Yes, it is," Jadus replied, forcing an evil smile on his face, ignoring the agonizing pain in his shattered kneecaps. "In just a matter of hours, he's going to send several warships down here with orders to do whatever it takes to find the key and the jewel, and they'll even level this city and all the other worlds if they have to in order to find it". Lloyd was filled with hate towards the Black Shadow organization and their evil plan to decimate Smashopolis and the smashers home worlds, all for a magic key, a sacred jewel, and him.

"You bastards," Lloyd grabbed Jadus by the neck and glared at him with rage. "Just how many more innocent lives do you intend on taking until you get what you want?! First you kill my mother, then my fleet, and my lover! Just what is it your trying to accomplish?! Tell me!". Jadus only spat at him in response to his demand.

"Fuck you!" He growled coldly at Lloyd, who was prepared to behead him with the circular saw right before several cops kicked the door open and burst in; Samus was with them.

"What are you doing?! Put that down immediately!" Samus demanded, slapping the saw out of Lloyd's hand as the cops rushed over and untied Captain Jadus.

"He's got two shattered kneecaps," the officer on the left reported. "He's going to need medical attention".

The other cop looked up at Lloyd as he helped lift Jadus up. "Just what the hell were you doing down here?!".

"Interrogating him, that's what," Lloyd snapped, pulling out of Samus's grip. "And if you have any brains at all, you'll hand him over to _me!_ ".

"And why the hell would we do that? You just committed an act of physical assault and torture, and we could easily have you brought in for questioning as well" the cops demanded.

Lloyd pointed at Jadus, then said, "This man happens to be part of a very dangerous criminal organization called Black Shadow, and they're planning to attack this city. You don't know them like I do, and you've got to believe me when I tell you-".

"I've heard enough," the cop snapped as paramedic officers came down into the basement with a stretcher bed. "Just who is this Black Shadow organization and where are they? I have a hard time believing this". Lloyd was about to answer when Samus cut in.

"Officers, I can explain everything" she interrupted and then began explaining everything that Lloyd had told her back out in deep space. As the paramedics lifted the wounded Black Shadow captain onto the stretcher bed and carried him away, the two cops stayed behind and listened to everything that Samus and Lloyd told them. It was a long rendition, and once the two of them finally finished, the two officers glanced at each other with perplexed expressions.

"Are you sure about this?" One of the cops finally asked.

"They are telling the truth!" A mystic male voice boomed from the basement door. Everyone in the basement looked up and saw Master Hand hovering at the door.

"What the-?!" Lloyd exclaimed in surprise, feeling slightly squeamish at the sight of a man sized hand floating towards them.

"Ah, Master Hand, your here," Samus said, turning to Lloyd. "I never did introduce you to Master Hand, did I?".

"Um, no, you didn't" Lloyd noted squeamishly as the large hand approached him.

"Master Hand," the left cop snapped, stepping in front of Lloyd. "This man had no right to do what he did to that pilot the paramedics just took. I insist you let me take him in".

"No, I'll handle this, now go," Master Hand insisted, turning to Lloyd. "You must be the space marine Samus told me about, are you not?".

Lloyd nodded, then said, "Yes, I'm Lloyd Florence, Captain of the _S.S Daphne_ ".

"And I am Master Hand, the mayor of Smashopolis and the founder of the Smash Brothers Tournaments," Master Hand replied. "I was informed by the smashers here about the attack from that dangerous ship laying in smolders outside the mansion, so I came down here to investigate. Samus tells me that you know all about that ship and the men who piloted it, so I'd like you to tell me everything you know about them and about the information you obtained from the one pilot you broke down here".

The two cops had already left the basement which left Lloyd, Samus, and Master Hand alone. Lloyd began to explain everything that he had forced out of Captain Jadus in firm detail, and it was just as Samus had predicted back when she and the Star Fox team return to Earth from deep space. Master Hand was equally concerned by everything Lloyd explained to him. The thought of another invasion on Smashopolis and the other dimensions was something that Master Hand had always feared the most.

It had been five years since the Tabuu invasion from Subspace, and it had taken at least a year to recover from it. If this new threat planned to attack Smashopolis for complete control over the Transwarp Gate with the use of the Sacred Jewel, then Master Hand would need to form a battle plan to insure that an unexpected invasion like five years ago never happened again; he wanted to be ready for it.

"Lloyd, are you absolutely sure that what you've told me is true?" Master Hand asked, perturbed by the situation.

"Yes," Lloyd nodded. "If the Black Shadow gets their way, they'll invade and conquer every dimension using that Transwarp Gate, and with the Key to the Seven Worlds and the Sacred Jewel in their possession, they'll be able to come and go between alternative universes without delay, including my universe. If I was able to send word to planet Genesis about this whole situation, they might be able to send help using what's left of the USF fleet, but even still, the Black Shadow organization would greatly outnumber them one hundred and fifty to seventy. And there's no way in Hell that seventy warships and battleships would stand a chance against General Ridley's flagship, the _Death's Head_. That flagship is a super dreadnaught which carries firepower and defense greater than even half the Black Shadow organization and slave ships combined".

Master Hand sighed in a disturbed manner, then said, "Then I'd better gather up the other smashers and explain everything you just told me to them. If this organization is going to do what you said they'll do, we'll need to figure out a way to stop them before they attack Smashopolis".

"And how are we supposed to do that? I told you, even if I could get word out to Genesis about the situation, they'd never stand a chance against the entire Black Shadow organization" Lloyd asked, puzzled.

"I know," Master Hand replied. "But if they teamed up with the smashers and some of the military forces from their realms, we possibly might be able to fight back".

"That might be possible, but I don't know enough about the other realms the smashers live in, except for Samus and Fox's realm," Lloyd noted, his tone turning harsh with frustration. "And like I've said before, Genesis is too many light years away to send a message to the USF from here, and my starship is far too damaged to voyage through deep space again right now. How am I supposed to tell them anything in a situation like this?".

"There's no need for distress," Master Hand assured him. "Tomorrow, I'll have arrangements made at the Smashopolis Starship Yards to give you a rental starship or maybe a long range fighter ship to allow you to journey back to Genesis. I'll have Samus and Fox's team go with you in case you run into any trouble".

Lloyd looked delightfully stunned. "Really? You'd do that?".

"Of course we would," Master Hand replied. "You and the other smashers should all get some rest now for tomorrow, and I'll see to it that the police keeps that Black Shadow thug locked up".

"Good, at least he'll be away from the public and won't cause anymore harm, but that doesn't mean the Black Shadow won't grow suspicious," Lloyd noted, pondering his thoughts. "When Captain Jadus remains out of contact long enough, Ridley will probably send others down here to look for him, so we'll need to be very cautious and look out for any other Black Shadow scouts that might come down here".

"Yes," Samus agreed. "This may not be the last we see of them. There's bound to be others out there planning to finish the job".

"Then we'd best be looking out for each other," Master Hand advised cautiously. "But for now, let's return to bed and rest up for tomorrow. The Smash Bros tournament is in four days, so you'll all need time and energy to practice for it".

Lloyd nodded in agreement. "Yes, I'm quite exhausted myself, so I'll return to sleep for now". He then headed up the stairs and back to his guest room, hoping that the Black Shadow didn't plan on causing any more trouble throughout the rest of the night.

* * *

 **A/N: Now this is what I call an action packed chapter; an action packed fight and a harsh interrogation scene. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because the next will be greater. I'll also be working on my Bible Black story as well, so keep an eye out for updates on it. Until then, Adios Amigos!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey folks, sorry for the huge delay on this chapter. My life's getting busier by the day, but that won't stop me from completing this fic. As I did say before, future chapters may be delayed because of my busy life, as well as future fics. Also I deleted my Bible Black story because I couldn't figure out a working plot for it, but I may plan on writing a new one that features an apocalyptic alternate reality on what would have happened if Nami Kozuno had survived and gained Satan's power in an alternate ending of _Bible Black: Origins._ But anyway, here's the long awaited chapter; read and leave some reviews if you choose too.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are all that I own.**

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Chapter 7: Pursuit

"Ah, Lloyd, there you are; Samus, Snake, and some of the other smashers are waiting for you at the training stadium" R.O.B greeted Lloyd as he entered the large dining room where some of the other smashers and the guests were eating bacon, sausage, hash browns, and eggs; Lloyd was wearing a black short sleeve shirt and pants that he had recently recovered from his damaged starship after waking up, which was made out of a specialized material very similar to Samus's blue zero suit.

"All right, I'll head down there after I eat something," Lloyd said, choosing an empty chair next to Captain Olimar who had removed his helmet and was stuffing himself along with two of his pikmin friends. "I'm quite hungry after last night".

"Take what you like; there's plenty for all" Peach replied cheerfully.

"Yeah, I'm starving" Cartman replied, stuffing himself full of bacon.

"Jeez Cartman, how much more are you gonna eat?" Stan asked sarcastically as he watched Cartman wolfing down bacon like a hungry hippo.

"Peach said there's plenty, so I'll eat as much as I please" Cartman replied as he washed down the bacon with a can of Double Dew, a mountain dew soda with twice the caffeine and sugar of normal mountain dew. As he gulped the soda like a thirsty camel, Lloyd couldn't help but grimace in disgust; Cartman was a huge slob when it came to eating.

"Hey Cartman, save some for everyone else," Lloyd scolded. "There are others here besides you".

Cartman just glared at Lloyd, then said,"So?". Lloyd felt a slight pang of anger from Cartman's rudeness. It was obvious that he didn't have much respect for others around him, and he seemed to think that he could do whatever he pleased.

"Hey kid," Charlone snapped, folding her arms. "What's your deal? You so greedy that you gotta horde the bacon like some fat king?". Cartman just glanced at her with a retarded expression.

"Snooze, you lose, chick" he taunted.

"Why, you little...!" Charlone growled, standing up roughly and preparing to slap Cartman from across the long table, but Wein stopped her.

"Don't Charlone, he's just a kid," he said. "Besides, he's just doing it to provoke you on purpose".

"Yeah, and like you really need all that bacon, fat boy" Kyle said sarcastically.

"Yea'! Save zum' for us" Kenny added through his orange purka in a muffled voice.

"All right, all right," Cartman huffed in defeat. "I'm getting full anyway". He then left the dining room in a foul mood, taking his Double Dew can with him.

"Boy, for a kid he sure eats like a pig" Hans joked.

"Cartman always eats like a greedy hog, and I think he does it on purpose just to annoy us" Kyle replied.

"Well, he's sure done a good job doing that," Riviera scoffed, folding her arms. "And he really needs a diet too; he's as big as a pot belly pig".

"Lets not argue about Cartman anymore; he's not worth it," Lloyd insisted, filling his plate with eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns. "Lets eat and save our strength for the training stadium later. We'll need it for the tournament in four days". As Lloyd and the rest of the smashers continued eating, Lucas and Ness walked into the room on a path towards the mansion exit, catching the attention of the smashers.

"Hey Lucas, I saw you and Ness take down that crazy ship last night; you both rocked" Rayman commented.

"Yeah, those moves you used were awesome!" Globox added.

"Thanks, we're heading down to Smash Stadium to train for the tournament in four days" Ness smiled, pushing the screen door open.

Lucas then looked back and asked, "You guys coming too?".

"Yeah, once we're finished eating, we'll join you" Giana replied with a nod.

"All right then, see you later" Lucas then followed Ness out the door and closed it behind him. As the two of them headed out the front gate, Lucas turned back and glanced at the spot where the fighter shuttle had crashed just last night, which was now a black charred crater; several wooden planks had been nailed over the hole in the brick wall to keep anyone from coming in at night.

"Lucas," Ness called out. "You coming or what?". Lucas turned his attention back to Ness and then hurried on.

"Yeah, I'm coming" he replied back, catching up to Ness.

"Was something on your mind? You stopped near that blast hole in the wall" Ness asked Lucas curiously.

"No, I'm just glad that we both brought that dangerous ship down last night. It's this Black Shadow organization that I'm worried about though" Lucas answered, remembering everything that Lloyd told him and the other smashers last night after the shuttle was destroyed.

"Oh, you mean the guys that were piloting that ship? Yeah, this organization sounds pretty dangerous, but Master Hand says that he's forming a plan to try and beat them. Lloyd will be helping him with the plan as well since he knows the Black Shadow better than any of us" Ness replied.

"Yes, that's true," Lucas agreed. "And I overheard Master Hand saying that he'll have a rental ship prepared for him later so that he can head back to his planet to get help. Hopefully, we'll figure out a way to make the Black Shadow retreat from Earth".

"Just like the time we beat Tabuu five years ago" Ness replied, remembering the battle of Subspace five years ago.

Lucas nodded as they prepared to teleport using their PSI. "Yeah, just like then". The two psychics then rushed forward and then teleported themselves over to Smash Stadium using PK Teleport.

...

...

Meanwhile back on the _Death's Head_ out in space, General Ridley began to grow impatient with his fellow scouts. It had been a whole night down on Earth and the captain of the _Astaroth,_ along with the scout team he had taken down to the surface had not yet reported back to him. Ridley began to suspect that something had gone wrong with their fighter shuttle's communication system and were unable to contact the fleet, or maybe they had been spotted and shot down. In either way, Ridley needed the key to the Seven Worlds to obtain the Sacred Jewel, or else their plan to possess the Transwarp Gate would be a complete and utter failure.

"Commander Faust, try and contact Captain Jadus again" Ridley ordered, already losing patience. Faust complied and attempted to reach Captain Jadus and Corporal Hild again, but there was only static that responded back.

Faust shook his head with a sigh and then looked back over from his post at the General with regret. "There's still no response, General. Their shuttle's either out of range or been destroyed, and I can't reach their personal com's either".

"Damn it," Ridley muttered angrily, putting his fist down roughly on his command seat. "Their shuttle can't be out of range because our com signals can range over several light years, and we're not light years away".

"Well there's no trace of them anywhere" Faust insisted.

"Then I'm not taking any chances," Ridley replied firmly, standing up from his command chair. "I want multiple scout teams from this ship to head down to the surface of Earth and search that city called Smashopolis for any traces of Lloyd Florence, and I want you to take a scout team and search the Smashopolis Research Facility for the Key to the Seven Worlds. Use whatever force necessary, but I want that key found and intact".

"How soon can I leave?" Faust asked, getting up from his post.

"Right now," Ridley snapped firmly. "I want that key, and I want it as quickly as possible. The sooner we obtain that Sacred Jewel, the sooner we can obtain the Transwarp Gate to return to our own universe".

"General, a question, if I may ask" a Black Shadow cadet requested at his post.

"Yes, Cadet Simmons, what is it?" Ridley snapped, growing tired of being asked so many questions.

"Will we use the Transwarp Gate to expand our empire in other realms and universes as well? With that kind of technology, we'd be unstoppable" the cadet asked curiously.

"That's the general plan," Ridley answered, standing up. "Yes, I plan to do just that. With the Transwarp Gate in our hands, those other realms out there will be ours to conquer. While we will be able to return to our own universe, we will eventually turn the other realms to our direction and subdue them. We are the master race, and that is why we shall continue to make our empire stronger by expanding it throughout the galaxy, and new universes".

Everyone on the bridge all saluted their General and then Faust rushed off the bridge and headed for the fighter shuttle bay elevator. Several other scout teams in various locations of the _Death's Head_ also made their way to the elevators after receiving orders from Ridley, ready to begin their search for Lloyd and the Key to the Seven Worlds.

...

...

"Ness, Lucas, where's Lloyd and the other smashers?" Snake asked the two PSI wielders as they entered the Smash Stadium training field front gate. Samus, Zelda, Wario, Daisy, Marth, Roy, Ike, Pokemon Trainer, the Ice Climbers, Wii Fit Trainer, Mr. Game and Watch, Link, and King Dedede were all in various areas of the stadium, practicing for the tournament.

"They said they'd be down here after they finished eating. Lucas and me already ate, so we decided to come down here and practice for the tournament" Ness replied.

"Well, I hope they get down here soon, because Master Hand said he's coming down here later and he wants the other smashers here as well" Samus informed, walking out from the target shooting range on the left side of the stadium field.

"What is it he wants?" Ness asked curiously.

"Not sure," Samus answered. "But Master Hand did tell me that there'll be a few more guest fighters entering the tournament later on. He'll introduce them to us once he arrives".

"Wow, it seems lots of others are eager for the prize money" Lucas exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, but there can't be anymore guests after these new ones. Master Hand says there's a limit on how many guests can join, and the limits been reached" Samus noted.

"I wonder who these other guests could be" Ness wondered.

"We'll just have to wait and see once Master Hand arrives, but for now, let's get practicing" Snake declared and then the two PSI wielders joined him with the other smashers in the practice arena. Meanwhile back at Smash Mansion, Lloyd and the others had finished eating and were preparing to leave for the stadium.

"Hey Lloyd, you sure you don't need a ride to the stadium? I can give you a lift there in the limo" Luigi asked Lloyd as he came out of his guest room.

"Yes, I'm sure," Lloyd assured him. "Master Hand gave me a map to all of Smashopolis last night, so I've got the lay of the land. Besides, there's a few things back on my ship that I'll need for the training, so I'll walk down to the stadium after I get them".

"Okay, we'll be heading off then" Luigi replied and then headed out the door where the other smashers and guests were entering the limo. He then entered the drivers side of the limo, shut the door, and then drove out through the front gate. Lloyd then made his way out of the mansion and headed out the front gate, making his way towards the Smashopolis Dry Dock where his damaged starship was. His combat armor and tactical gear was stored inside a large storage chamber on the second deck of his ship, which he would need for defense against his opponents in the tournament, and during practice.

However, as Lloyd made his way down the street on his way to the Dry Dock, he was unaware that five Black Shadow fighter shuttle's were entering the atmosphere with their cloaking systems engaged. Commander Erin Faust was in the lead shuttle in front of all the other fighter shuttle's.

"All ships split up and search the city for Lloyd Florence and if possible, see if you can find the other scout team we sent down the other night. My ship will head down to the Smashopolis Research Facility to search for the Key to the Seven Worlds" Faust ordered the scout teams over the com system. The other fighters shuttle's then spread out in different directions and began searching the city for Lloyd while Faust searched for the Research Facility.

Because the shuttle's were cloaked, no one even suspected that they were flying above the city, unseen and unheard. Several minutes later, Lloyd had made it to the Dry Dock where he had entered the hanger bay where the _S.S Daphne_ stood, still badly damaged and slightly tilted to the left since the left landing gear leg was bent. Parts of the hull had massive burns, rips, and tears in them from laser cannon fire, the FTL engines were partly melted, and one of the impulse engines was blown apart.

Luckily, the entrance ramp still worked, which allowed Lloyd to come and go from the ship whenever he chose. Lloyd walked up to his ship, pressed a button on the right landing gear leg, and then the belly of the ship slid open and the ramp extended to allow Lloyd inside. As he entered the ship, he carefully stepped over several chunks of fallen metal and rubble that accumulated from the battle against the Black Shadow back in deep space, then he headed for his personal quarters on the top deck; the _Daphne_ had two decks in total.

Most of the deck corridors were covered in rubble and had wire cables sticking out of holes in the wall from the damage the ship had taken, but Lloyd vowed to repair all of it once he won that tournament. As Lloyd made his way over to the ladder leading up to the first deck, he saw something laying near next to the wall near the ladder. He walked over and picked it up, blowing dust off of it; it was the ship's registry plaque that read, "S.S DAPHNE, SE-429, GREYHAWK-CLASS". Lloyd gently smiled at the plaque as he hung it back up, promising himself that the _Daphne_ would sail out among the stars once again.

A few minutes later after climbing up the ladder, Lloyd reached his personal quarters where he fetched his armored, laser revolver, combat boots, and combat knife. He then left the room and headed back down the messy corridor, just as one of the Black Shadow fighter shuttle's hovered over the Dry Dock, searching for him.

"Where's Lloyd's ship? It should be here" the commander of one of the shuttle's demanded to the pilot.

"It must be inside one of the hanger bays; I'm scanning them now" the pilot replied, scanning the whole Dry Dock. As he scanned the area, Lloyd had just exited the hanger bay where his ship was, unaware of the danger that lerked just above him.

"I'd better get down to the stadium. The others are waiting" Lloyd said to himself as he rushed out of the Dry Dock and back into the street, just as one of the shuttle's spotted him.

"There he is! Down there on the sidewalk" the pilot pointed out.

The commander looked out the window and saw Lloyd walked down the street towards the city, then said, "It _is_ him! Alert the other shuttle's to decloak and prepare to capture him. Set the laser cannons to low power and on stun; General Ridley wants him alive".

As Lloyd made his way into the city, he heard the sound of the shuttle's engines from above as they decloaked, as did the rest of the public around him. And when Lloyd saw what the source of the sound was, his heart leaped with horror.

"Oh God, no! Not again!" Lloyd cursed fearfully and then he began running away as fast as he could. As he ran, the fighter shuttle's chased after him and opened fire, shooting bursts of red laser blasts at Lloyd and attempting to stun him. Several bystanders cried out in terror and ran off in various directions as the three shuttle's continued firing at anything standing in their way of Lloyd.

"After him! Don't let him get away!" The shuttle commander barked sternly at the pilot. Lloyd quickly ran through crowds of civilians in his path, screaming warnings at them to run away as the shuttle's continued to shoot at him. He continued running and running until he noticed a nearby alley up ahead. Lloyd quickly ran into the alley just as one of the shuttle's fired a laser blast which hit a nearby car and blew it to pieces, sending burning metal and shrapnel all around the area. He ran further into the alley and then hid behind an old dumpster to avoid being seen by the shuttle's, then sank down to the ground to rest and catch his breath from running.

"Hey you! What are you doing back here? This is our hideout area" a female voice demanded behind Lloyd. He turned around and saw a group of busty teenage goth girls in skimpy S&M style clothing standing behind him with their arms folded. The three of these girls appeared to be about eighteen to nineteen years old. The one in the middle had long black and purple colored hair with black lipstick on her lips, ruby diamond ear rings, black latex gloves, boots, shorts, and a tang top. She also had a Celtic style cross tattoo on her right shoulder and an angel tattoo on her left shoulder.

"Vanessa asked you a question, boy. What are you doing back here?" the pink haired goth girl snapped with her arms folded. This girl wore a matching S&M style outfit like the girl in the black one, only hers was violet instead of black, and her pink hair was much shorter as well. The third goth girl had a red colored S&M style outfit with the same design as the other two, as well as blue dyed Mohawk style hair and lipstick of the same color as her hair. She had several tattoos on her legs and arms and a lip ring in her top lip. Lloyd was about to answer when he heard panicking and then saw the fighter shuttle's hovering outside the alley, looking for him.

"Hey, you deaf?! She asked you a-" the teen girl repeated, but was cut short when Lloyd pressed his finger to his mouth, telling them to stay silent.

"Shh," Lloyd whispered, pointing at one of the fighter shuttle's outside the alley. "That's why I'm here. Those ships are after me, and I can't let them see me". As Lloyd drew out his laser revolver and set it to its highest setting, Vanessa glanced at the shuttle and then looked back at Lloyd.

"Those ships are the reason your back here? What the hell are they after you for?" She wondered, not understanding at all what was going on. Just then, one of the shuttle's spotted him in the alley with its scanners and then opened fire on him. The other two shuttle's then began firing on him as well.

"No time to explain, gotta run!" Lloyd shouted over the loud explosions, running further down the alley towards the other end. The shuttle's quickly flew over the buildings and headed for the other side where Lloyd had run out of the alley, pulling out his laser revolver and setting it to its highest setting. Once the shuttle's reached the other side of the buildings, they began shooting at Lloyd again, and that's when he retaliated.

Lloyd fired his weapon at the shuttle in the front of the others, hitting one of the tactical arms and causing it to swerve out of control down to the ground where it crashed into the center of the road and exploded. Several nearby cars were blown apart in the explosion, but some of the other ones managed to move away fast enough before the shuttle hit the ground. Lloyd quickly took off again as the other two remaining fighter shuttle's pursued him, now with their shields up; after seeing what just happened, they weren't taking any more chances.

"Move! Get out of here, now!" Lloyd shouted to the crowds of civilians ahead of him as he ran onward with the two shuttle's following him. He spun around and fired his weapon at the shuttle's, doing only minimal damage to their shields, then took off running again. Lloyd had to figure out how to lose them, or find a way to stop them. He knew that running over to the Smash Stadium would be a horrible idea since it would lead the fighter shuttle's right to the other smashers, which would put them in terrible danger.

Lloyd glanced around quickly as he ran, hoping to find a place to hide from the fighter shuttle's shooting at him, and then he saw an open manhole up ahead near an intersection which lead under the city. As quickly as he could, Lloyd jumped into the manhole, pulling the door shut in the process. Up above, the shuttle's ceased fire and recloaked, seeing that their target had been lost.

Down below, Lloyd lay unconscious on the ground from the heavy impact of his fall. The manhole he had jumped into lead twenty feet under the city and into the underground sewer system. None of Lloyd's bones had been broken since his armored absorbed most of the impact, but the force of landing on a solid brick ground from twenty feet above had been enough to knock him out cold.

Things were looking bad for Lloyd, but up above, things were even worse. Panic was occurring everywhere in the city from the fighter shuttle's attack on the public, and meanwhile over near the seaside area of Smashopolis, Faust had located the Research Facility when he suddenly received word from the other two fighter shuttle's that one of their other shuttle's had been destroyed and Lloyd had evaded capture.

"What?! What do you mean he evaded capture?" Faust demanded, confused.

 _"We had him on the run, but he jumped down into a manhole before we could catch him, and he's now under the city somewhere"_ the fighter shuttle pilot replied over the com system.

"Then scan for any human life signs under the city and find him!" Faust snapped impatiently.

 _"We already tried that, but our shuttle's sensors apparently can't scan anything underground. I'm afraid we've lost him; he could be anywhere by now"_ the pilot responded regrettably.

"Then find a secluded area, land your shuttle's, and then get your fucking asses out there and search under the city for him; I don't care what it takes. Tear the whole city apart if you have to until you've found Lloyd, and use stunning force only; I want him alive!" Faust barked sternly, then he terminated the com and order the shuttle pilot to land their shuttle near a bald spot filled with flowers in the large forest near the Smashopolis Research Facility.

The fighter shuttle's crab like arms raised higher and then the landing legs extended, allowing it to land softly on the ground. The shuttle's undercarriage thrusters slowed its descent, and then it softly landed on the flowery spot where the pilot turned the engines off and lowered the docking ramp. Faust and the three pilots suited up in their armor, assault laser rifles and laser revolvers, hand grenades, and even specialized laser swords which were capable of cutting through almost anything, except for other laser swords.

"All right, let's move out" Faust ordered his men, who then followed him down the ramp and into the flower filled bald spot. Once they were all out of the shuttle, Faust pressed several buttons on his wrist remote bracelet which raised the ramp back up and then activated the shuttle's cloaking device, hiding it from anyone who might come into the area.

"Boss, you don't think anyone will find our ship here, do you?" One of the men asked.

"As long as the cloaking device is active, no one will see it, unless they come walking through this flower spot where it's standing" Faust answered, feeling slightly annoyed by this nonsense question, but he couldn't help but feel a bit concerned about the possibility that someone would wander into this open part of the forest and bump into the shuttle. If that happened, they'd surely get suspicious about it.

"Maybe we should check the area around the ship for any signs of spies" the shuttle pilot suggested.

"No," Faust shook his head. "We've got a mission to complete, and I don't want to waste anymore time searching the forest for possible spies. I doubt that anyone saw us land since we're deep in the forest, so we shouldn't have to worry about anything, so just drop the subject and keep your minds on the mission the General gave us. Once we get that key to the Seven Worlds and the Sacred Jewel, we'll have what we need to prepare for the invasion of this world and capture the Transwarp Gate to return home to our universe and possibly expand our empire, so let's get going".

The comrades didn't want to anger Faust with their arguments, so they all agreed to stick the mission and carry on. As they all headed into the forest however, they didn't notice a small figure hiding in one of the trees nearby. The figure was a girl who had the appearance of a young teen, sky blue eyes, long light brown hair tied in a ponytail with a light purple bow and blue braids, wore a golden yellow shirt with an orange and white flower on it, violet purple bracelets and a dress of the same color, brown shoes with flowers on them, and a magical flower rod. This girl was none other than Lip, the fairy of flowers and princess of the realm of the _Panel De Pon_ fairy kingdom, and a recently new smasher who had chosen to stay living in her realm with her mother, the fairy queen, and her fairy friends instead of Smash Mansion just as some of the other smashers did.

She had been tending the flowers in the bald spot before the fighter shuttle had arrived, which had startled her. Lip had quickly flown up into a nearby pine tree when the shuttle had started to land, not knowing whether or not the men in it were friendly or hostile. When she saw these men dressed in heavy combat gear and carrying mean looking weapons, Lip had a bad feeling that these men were up to no good. And when Lip had heard Faust mentioning things about stealing the Key to the Seven Worlds and the Sacred Jewel, along with invaded Smashopolis and taking the Transwarp Gate, she became frightened.

If they stole the Transwarp Gate, Lip would never be able to return home to her own realm, and she'd be trapped in this realm forever. Her first thought was to try and stop these men herself, but Lip knew that such an attempt would be suicidal since she'd be outnumbered and outweaponed. Faust and his men would easily overpower her and maybe even kill her with their advanced weaponry if she tried to fight them alone. The only thing Lip could do was go for help, and she knew just who might be able to help: the other smashers.

"I've got to tell the other smashers about this, and quickly too" Lip declared, spreading her fairy wings. She then took off into the sky and headed for the city of Smashopolis to look for the other smashers.

...

...

"Ugh, my aching head," Lloyd muttered as he awoke from his unconsciousness, slowly got back on his feet, and then rubbed a large bump on his head he got from when he hit it on the metal ladder leading down into the manhole. "Where the hell am I?". Lloyd looked around and found himself in a large underground sewer system which was dimly lit by a seemingly endless long path of electric sewer lamps on the cement walls leading down both the left and right passages. Lloyd looked up and saw that the manhole door was closed just as he had left it before hitting the ground.

Lloyd knew that he couldn't go back up to the surface without running the risk that the fighter shuttle's were out there waiting for him to come back out into the open, but he still had to get down to the stadium and tell the other smashers about what had happened. He knew that the only safe way to get there was by traveling under the city through the sewer system since he knew that a ship's sensors couldn't scan underground.

Lloyd had no idea which way to go or where the sewer passages would lead him, but he had no other choice. There was no way that Lloyd was taking any risks that the remaining fighter shuttle's were out there waiting to attack him the moment he surfaced. Lloyd also wondered if maybe they had called for reinforcements, which would make things even worse, and be even more of a reason to stay below the city.

"I've got to find a way to Smash Stadium from under the city. I can't risk getting caught by those Black Shadow fighter shuttle's again" Lloyd said aloud, heading down the left passage through the sewer. The passage walkways were slightly narrow with guardrails near the edges so that no one would fall into the swampy sewer water in the middle of the passage ways. The passage tunnels were very long and barely lit from the sewer lamps, making it hard for Lloyd to see ahead clearly.

Along the way, there were other passages connected to the same one that Lloyd was rushing through, which lead to all the other manholes and sewage passages under the big city. Lloyd had no idea which way to go, but he didn't care which tunnel he took. What mattered was finding the Smash Stadium and warning the other smashers that the Black Shadow organization was searching the city for him in cloaked ship's.

"Its a maze down here," Lloyd murmured as he traversed through various tunnels and passages ahead of him. "This is going to be harder and longer than I thought". Lloyd was not expecting an underground sewer system to be so complex, nor with so many passages, but he couldn't stop to rest right now. He had to find another manhole and make his way to Smash Stadium.

...

...

Meanwhile at Smash Stadium, Mario and Luigi had been searching the stadium for Lloyd after arriving thirty minutes earlier, but couldn't find him anywhere. The other smashers already at the stadium were resting in the break room from practicing for the last two hours, but the ones that had rode with Luigi in the limo were still out training in the stadium, so Luigi and Mario took their time to search for Lloyd.

"Hmm, just where could-a Lloyd be?" Mario wondered, checking the restrooms for any sign of Lloyd.

Down at the break room, Luigi rushed inside, then asked the smashers, "Have you seen-a Lloyd anywhere?". Peach, Bowser, Robot Chicken, R.O.B, Pit, Zelda, Samus, Snake, Ike, Peppy, Krystal, Pokemon Trainer, Fox, Link, Ness, Lucas, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Lanky Kong, Tiny Kong, and Chunky Kong looked up from what they were doing and looked over at Luigi with unsure expressions.

"No, I thought he was coming here with you in the limo" Peach replied, sipping a mug of green tea.

"He said-a that he'd walk down here on his own-a. I haven't-a seen him anywhere in the stadium" Luigi explained.

"Maybe Lloyd just got lost or something" Bowser guessed, drinking a can of Budlight.

"Or maybe he just decided to explore the city. He is new to Smashopolis after all" Pokemon Trainer suggested.

"Bok bok bok (you don't think he's in any kind of trouble, do you?)" Robot Chicken clucked, munching on a bowl of chicken seed.

"Well, Lloyd did say that he had a map of Smashopolis, so I don't think he'd get lost. Maybe I'm just overreacting" Luigi said, remembering what Lloyd said about being given a map from Master Hand. Just then, Mario entered the room urgently, looking perturbed.

"Mario, you look worried. What's going on?" Pit asked curiously.

"There's trouble, that's-a what" Mario said in a concerned tone.

"Trouble? Where?" Samus demanded, standing up from her metal chair.

"One of our newest Smashers saw something going on near the Research Facility. She can tell everything" Mario answered, then another smasher entered the room; it was the flower fairy, Princess Lip.

"Lip! Long time no see; haven't seen you in awhile" Krystal exclaimed in surprise.

"Well I'll be! It's definitely Lip" Peppy added.

"There's no time for pleasantries; there's trouble near the Research Facility" Lip said, pointing to the distance outside.

"The Research Facility? What's going on down there?" Samus asked in concern. Lip began to explain everything that she had witnessed at the flowery bald spot back in Smash Forest near the Research Facility. She told them about the strange ship that landed there, and about everything that she heard from the men that had been inside the ship. When the smashers heard the part about their plan to steal the key to the Seven Worlds and the Sacred Jewel, this confirmed who these men really were; they were Black Shadow troops!

"Mama mia! I know who they are-a!" Mario gasped.

"You do? Who are those men?" Lip asked curiously.

"It's a long story..." Samus began telling Lip everything that she and the other smashers knew about the Black Shadow organization. She explained about how she rescued a stranded space marine from near death out in deep space who's starship had been damaged in battle with an evil space terrorist organization known as Black Shadow, lead by an evil General named Ridley Farcus. She then explained to Lip that Lloyd had mentioned the Black Shadow's plan to steal the Transwarp Gate and then use the Key to the Seven Worlds and the Sacred Jewel to invaded other realms and then eventually return to their universe.

"Steal the Transwarp Gate?!" Lip gasped in horror.

"Yes, and if they succeed, they'll become a very powerful threat to our realms and this world as well. And without the Transwarp Gate, we'll be unable to return to our own realms, and Lloyd will also be trapped in this universe if that happens" Samus concluded darkly.

"Then we've got to get down to the Research Facility and stop those men from taking those two items before it's too late" Fox declared.

"Yes, and we'll need to find out where Lloyd is too. I don't know if those Black Shadow troops have anything to do with his prolonged absence, but I have a feeling that he's in trouble" Princess Zelda noted.

"All right then," Samus announced. "Snake, Fox, Krystal, Falco, Peppy, Robot Chicken, Zelda, R.O.B, Lip, and Ike will head over with me to the Research Facility, and Lucas, Ness, Link, Pit, Peach, Bowser, Pokemon Trainer, and the Kong's will search for Lloyd in the city".

"Sounds like a plan to me" Falco agreed.

"Well then, let's get going. There's no time to lose" Ness replied, following Samus out the door.

* * *

 **A/N: Well now, looks like our favorite fairy from _Panel De Pon_ has joined the group. Will the smashers be able to stop Faust and his men from stealing the Key and the Sacred Jewel? And what will become of Lloyd? Find out in the next chapter, coming soon.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hey folks, happy new year! I've been on quite a hiatus due to my busy life, and for other reasons, but I haven't given up yet. Chapter eight is finally here after a two month hiatus, so read on.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are all that I own.**

* * *

Chapter 8: Research Facility Invasion

"Where is it?! Find it!" Faust roared impatiently at his men as they raided a large storage chamber inside the Research Facility, which was filled with large heavy safes capable of withstanding a grenade and a rocket launcher. All around them, lifeless bodies of security guards lay on the floor from trying to stop Faust and his men as they searched for the key and the Sacred Jewel. They had already raided the first floor of the building, finding no trace of what they were searching for.

Faust and his men had also tortured several of the researchers and scientists in the Research Facility to try and force them to reveal the location of the Key to the Seven Worlds and the Sacred Jewel, but they refused to submit to their demands, which resulted in their deaths. After having to fight through a large team of armed security guards and nearly getting killed in the process, Faust was in a very impatient and incandescent mood.

"These safes are laser resistant, we can't blast through them" one of Faust's men reported as he fired at one of the safes in the corner of the room with his assault laser rifle set on medium power. Growling with malice, anger, and impatience, Faust stormed over to the safe and kicked the cadet out of the way.

"Your so fucking useless, you know that?!" Faust snapped angrily at the cadet, then drew out his own assault laser rifle and set it to its highest setting. He then fired a laser beam at the hinges and blasted them clean off, then he ripped the safe door off and threw it aside, then he turned to his men with a glare.

"Quit standing around and blast the damn hinges off and check the rest of the safes before more security teams arrive, you slowpokes!" Faust barked coldly as he blasted the other safes and check them as well. His men began blasting open the other four safes near the far left corner of the room and checked for any trace of the Key or the jewel, but all they found were various chemicals and glowing blue crystals inside them; there was no trace of the jewel or the Key. Faust found glass viles filled with yellow and red liquid inside the other safes, but not what he was looking for.

"Damn it! Where is it?! WHERE IS IT?!" Faust yelled angrily, kicking over the safes and anything in his path, losing almost all patience.

"Its nowhere in here, Commander. We'd best keep searching before the scientists free themselves from the reactor core room and send for reinforcements" one of the scouts urged as he pushed another safe over on its side.

"Then we'd better send for our own reinforcements," Faust replied stubbornly, pulling out his communicator from his uniform. " _Death's Head,_ this is Commander Faust. Come in, General Ridley".

 _"This is General Ridley, what's going on down there, Commander?"_ General Ridley responded.

"We've made it to the Research Facility and locked up most of the scientists and staff inside the nuclear reactor core room so that we'd be able to search for the Key and the Sacred Jewel, but this place is much larger than I thought, and we barely escaped a small security team patrolling the building. Once the staff frees themselves, they'll send in more security teams to try and stop us, so I'm going to need more backup down here" Faust explained in detail.

 _"What about the other three fighter shuttle's that were sent out to look for Lloyd. What's their status? Have they found him yet"_ Ridley questioned.

"No, he jumped into a manhole and escaped inside the sewer system under the city somewhere. I've ordered the two remaining shuttle troops to land in a secure location and go after him" Faust replied.

 _"Two remaining shuttle's? Where's the third one?"_ Ridley questioned with a perplexed tone of voice.

"Lloyd blasted it to pieces with his laser rifle, unfortunately" Faust answered in a slightly downtrodden tone.

 _"Damn that space marine,"_ Ridley cursed angrily. _"Very well, It seems I'll have to... improvise"._

"Improvise? How will you do that?" Faust wondered curiously.

 _"I think it's time that I get serious, and this is how I'll do it..."_ Ridley began explaining his plan to Faust, who found it very interesting. At the same time, Samus and the smashers had just entered the building on the first floor where they found several security guards laying dead on the floor, red alert lights flashing on the walls, and indications of weapons fire on the walls and ceiling.

"Oh no, I think we're too late" Fox exclaimed as he looked around the corridor at the dead security guards.

"Looks like they got here before we did" Ike said regrettably.

"You don't think that they stole the Key and the Sacred Jewel, do you?" Zelda wondered, now worried.

"I don't know, but we'd better search the whole facility starting with this floor, then we'll check the rest of the upper floors. If there are any survivors, they'll need our help no doubt" Samus replied.

"We should split up and look for the invaders," R.O.B suggested. "If they're still here, we've got to stop them before they get their hands on the key and the jewel".

"I agree with R.O.B; we should split up" Krystal agreed.

"That might not be wise," Falco objected. "If we split up and come across an army of those Black Shadow thugs, we could end up in terrible danger".

"Bok bok bok (maybe there aren't that many thugs in this place)" Robot Chicken guessed.

"We don't know that, they could have brought backup" Snake noted.

"Yes, they could have, but we need to find the Key and the Sacred Jewel. Splitting up will reduce the chances of them capturing us all at once, so I agree with R.O.B on splitting up" Samus replied.

"Me and R.O.B can search for survivors," Lip offered. "I can fly into the air shafts to avoid being caught".

"All right, then that's what you two will do. The rest of us will search the building for the Key, the jewel, and any others that might have survived" Samus agreed.

"No problem" Lip then spread her wings and prepared to fly up into a nearby open air shaft, but Snake stopped her.

"Lip, wait, there's something I need to tell you" he said.

"And what is that?" Lip asked curiously.

"If you do happen to come across any Black Shadow troops, there's a sure chance that they'll be heavily armed and dangerous, and that means you may have to use killing force to get past them" Snake explained carefully.

Lip felt deeply disturbed by what Snake just said. She had always used her magic for knowledge, defense, and sometimes for attack when facing threat forces, but never in her whole life had Lip ever used her magic to inflict lethal damage on an enemy, no matter how evil they were.

"Kill them?! But... I... I've never done that... before; I... I couldn't..." Lip protested hesitantly.

"Lip, I understand that you've never used deadly force on an enemy before, but if you come across the Black Shadow, then you may have no other choice. Look at the dead bodies around us; you could end up just like them if you don't defend yourself" Snake explained calmly.

"He's right, Lip. None of us want to kill anyone, but sometimes when an enemy has us cornered and our lives are on the line, we have no other option but to use lethal force as a means of self defense" Ike admitted.

"Even the police forces do the same thing" Falco said. Lip knew in her heart that they were right. These thugs were savage men, and if she hesitated even for a moment while in contact with them, she'd end up dead just like the other corpses around her.

"I'll... I'll try if it comes to that" Lip decided, then she spread her wings and flew up towards the nearest air vent and pulled it open, then she flew inside it and started crawling through the air shaft. As Lip crawled through the dim air shaft, she let out a sneeze from the dust that accumulated on all sides of the shaft.

"Man, it's dusty in here. When's the last time these shafts got cleaned?" Lip wondered as she continued through the shaft. As the other smashers searched for survivors, Faust had just finished hearing General's Ridley's change of plans in the storage chamber on the second floor and were now continuing their search for what they came for.

"We have new orders from the General. He wants us to continue looking for the Key and the Sacred Jewel, and he'll be sending in backup to help us search for them and Lloyd" Faust announced to his men, who were still searching the room when they stopped and turned their attention to Faust.

"Good, cause we're going to need it" one of them said with relief.

"Is he sending more fighter shuttle's?" The other one asked curiously.

"Better than that," Faust said with glee. "General Ridley is sending in the Black Shadow dreadnaught _Thanatos_ to launch an assault on the city. He's lost patience and wants Lloyd found and captured, so he's going to coerce the whole city into handing Lloyd over to us, or they'll pay the price by having their city obliterated bit by bit".

The other thugs chuckled in delight at the sheer thought of the General's plan as Faust lead them out of the storage room and then ordered them to split up in their search. At the same time on the second floor in the security room, Zelda, now in her alter ego form, Sheik, had found two live security guards laying near the security screen consoles; one was out cold and the other one was being tended to by Sheik.

"What happened here? Do you know who did this to you?" Sheik asked the security guards laying on the ground.

"Those men in black... they wanted the key to the Seven Worlds and the Sacred Jewel. They overpowered my security team, ransacked half the facility, and even tortured some of the scientists for information" the guard replied weakly.

"Did they reveal the location of the jewel and the Key? Where are they?" Sheik asked worriedly.

"The key and the Sacred Jewel have been moved to a hidden area beneath the facility and sealed inside a specialized vault that can't be opened without the secret passcode. I don't know why they want those treasures so bad, but whatever the reason is, it can't be good" the guard replied.

"Could they blast through it with their weapons if they get the chance?" Sheik asked, healing the guards wounds with her magical abilities.

"I don't know, that vault was designed to withstand a grenade, a rocket launcher, and even a nuclear bomb, but I'm not sure if a laser will blast through it or not" the guard replied.

"Then I've got to find them and stop them before they find the vault and try to break it open," Sheik declared, standing back up. "How many of those thugs are there?".

"At least four or five, and they're heavily armed, so you'd best be careful if your planning to confront them" the guard warned.

"Don't worry, me and the smashers have been through a lot worse than this and we know how to fight when it comes to danger" Sheik assured him and then headed off to find the Black Shadow raiders. Elsewhere in the facility, Fox and Krystal were currently searching the science lab room where they found several scientists laying dead against several shelves and tables. Some of the shelves had been searched and their contents thrown out onto the floor, and some of the equipment on the exam tables had been blasted apart by laser fire.

"Looks like they were shot by those thugs that broke in" Krystal replied, noticing several blood stained holes in the chests and necks of the dead scientists.

"These ones over here look like they were beaten to death," Fox reported, pointing to three of the dead scientists which had large bloody wounds all over their heads and faces from what might have been inflicted by punches and kicks. "I don't know why the thugs didn't shoot them. They must have had a reason for doing this".

"Most likely for answers" Krystal guessed as they moved into the next room, which appeared to be a prototype weapons lab, which was surprisingly untouched by the Black Shadow.

"No one's in here," Fox replied, checking the whole lab room. "We'd best keep searching the rest of the building".

"Where do they keep the key and the jewel? It's here in the facility, right?" Krystal wondered.

"If I remember correctly, there's an armored safe under the facility that contains the key and the jewel. We've got to get them out of this place and hide them somewhere where they won't be found" Fox answered.

Krystal shrugged. "Where would we hide them?"

"I'm not sure, but we can't leave them here, that's for sure" Fox replied.

"Then we've got to get down to the basement level and remove them both before those thugs get to them" Krystal declared.

Fox nodded and drew out his laser blaster. "Then let's get going".

...

...

Lloyd had stopped to rest after searching the sewer passages for several hours. He had yet to find another manhole that would lead him back up into the city, and the sewer passages were like a maze. Finding another manhole proved to be very difficult, and Lloyd was growing tired from all the walking and running, so he slumped down to the ground and began to grow sleepy.

"Just a few minutes won't hurt" Lloyd mumbled softly as he shut his eyes and fell asleep, completely unaware of what was happening on the ground above him. Up above in the sky, an enormous black space vessel had entered the Earth's atmosphere and was descending towards Smashopolis. This vessel slightly resembled a large battleship, only it had enormous impulse engines on the back instead of rotors, a triple plated armored hull, and it was at least 12,000 meters long. It's eminence size literally almost shaded the entire city in shadow.

Both the right and left sides of the ship were lined with enormous super laser cannons and super photonic grenade launchers, along with fighter bay doors under the belly of the ship which carried over 300 space fighters. On the very back of the ship's surface was a small tower where the main command bridge was located at the top. This vessel was the Black Shadow dreadnaught, _B.S.D.N Thanatos,_ commanded by a savage Russian criminal known as Captain Regina Black. This pure evil woman was greatly feared among the entire ship, and the Black Shadow fleet, for her savage, sadistic, genocidal murders of various conquered species across the galaxy.

Before joining the Black Shadow, Regina had lived a very hard and abusive life in an orphanage on an earth like planet named Tobias VI, run by a sadistic matron who hated children and their existence to the very core. Regina never knew her parents since they had been killed by a gang of loan sharks whom they owed money to, so she had been raised in very harsh conditions by the orphanage and abused almost everyday by the matron named Vanessa Gulch, a cold hearted woman who loved torturing children who stepped out of line and sometimes just for evil pleasure.

She also had some of the male teenage orphans on her side whom she corrupted with her insidious, avuncular lies. They served as Vanessas servants who had been allowed special privileges and freedom as long as they did exactly what she said without question, and they had been delighted to do so. Regina and several other orphans had been forced to work as slaves around the orphanage, such as cleaning latrines without protection, and many other horrid and unsanitary jobs. Those who refused would be dragged in chains down to the orphanage dungeon and brutally tortured by Vanessa as punishment for daring to defy her demands.

Many of the other older orphans had eventually lost their sanity to the matrons deliberate abuse and torture and eventually succumbed to death, and so Regina and the other fifteen surviving orphans planned to escape overnight while the matron and her loyal subjects were sleeping. Hardened with hate and anger towards Vanessa and the orphans who followed her, Regina planned to get back at them in the most brutal and evil way.

As Vanessa slept in her chambers, Regina snuck inside a storage shed and stole a container filled with engine oil and then poured it all over Vanessa and set it aflame, burning her alive and causing her to die a very slow and excruciating death. Regina and the escapees did the same thing to Vanessas followers, then they made a run for it and eventually escaped before the entire orphanage burned down from the oil fire.

After that, they made a living in the street alleys of Tobias VI, striving to survive by stealing to feed each other. But although the orphanage and the matron were gone, Regina's heart and the hearts of all the other orphans that followed her had been hardened by year's of constant abuse and torture growing up, which lead them all to believe that violence, survival of the fittest, greed, and deception were the only means of getting ahead in their lives.

Together they robbed, plundered, and in some cases, even killed in order to get what they wanted, such as food, water, credits, and any other luxuries that they wanted. Regina and the other orphans eventually became a gang of pirates known as Crimson Skull, with Regina as their leader. Once they reached their mid teen ages, Regina and her gang of pirates started gaining an interest in space travel, which eventually lead them to stealing a large Yamato-class luxury starship from the Tobias VI starship docks which they later refit into a battleship using some of the credits they had stolen from rival gangs.

Naming it the _S.S Bloodhawk,_ Regina and her gang took to the stars as ruthless space pirates, plundering various other starships and planets that they came in contact with and taking whatever resources they found interest in. Over the years as Crimson Skull boarded and plundered many ships, Regina had grown fond of sadism and torture, which she and her other pirates often extracted on the unfortunate victims of the plundered vessels and planets. There were times when Regina would even smash the skulls of the space vessels captain's in front of the other prisoners she took and consume their blood, which earned her the title "Black Vampire".

Many years later when Ridley had taken notice to Regina and her pirates, he offered them a position in his criminal organization, which she gladly took. After a few months of harsh training and then finally loyalty pledging, Regina and her pirates had become official members of the Black Shadow organization. She was then given a dreadnaught warship and a crew at the rank of Captain, which was Regina's biggest wish come true. She gladly reeked havoc across the galaxy, savagely punishing planets under Black Shadow rule that refused to obey their masters, which involved mass public executions, destruction of cities, and in some very evil cases, the complete destruction of whole planets and stars with the use of illegal weapons known as "Nova Devices" and an "Xcelerator Cannon".

These weapons had been outlawed by the USF and almost every planet with relations to the USF due to the eminence destructive power they possessed, but the Black Shadow had managed to obtain the blueprints for these dangerous weapons through various black market space criminal networks on several different planets. Finding the parts to construct these weapons proved difficult however, since they were all contraband resources, but after searching long enough, the Black Shadow finally found the parts needed to build the Xcelerator Cannon and the Nova Devices.

The nova devices were simple, but dangerous to construct, yet the Black Shadow had managed to produce enough of them for every battleship, warship, a dreadnaught in the fleet with time and credits. The Xcelerator Cannon was a different story, however. The main source of the cannons power was a nuclear core which ran on power from the warship itself, which meant using a massive amount of energy from the ship's reactor core.

Because of this, very few ships in the Black Shadow fleet could be equipped with an Xcelerator Cannon due to the massive amount of energy it required to fire even a single shot, and it would take three months to fully construct one. Only very large and powerful battleships such as dreadnaughts and destroyers could withstand using such a powerful, destructive weapon like the Xcelerator Cannon without draining all the power from its reactor core.

The only three ships in the Black Shadow that had an Xcelerator Cannon was Regina's dreadnaught, the _Thanatos,_ the Black Shadow destroyer, the _Bloodfist,_ and General Ridley's super dreadnaught flagship, the _Death's Head._ With this dangerous weapon in the hands of the Black Shadow, very few subjected planets dared to defy them without fear of their planets complete destruction, and those who had the courage to stand up to the Black Shadow didn't last long. Regina enjoyed using this horrible weapon, and she hoped that she'd be able to use it again once Ridley gave her authorization.

"Commander Yeager, are the weapon systems ready? Regina asked her Commander, who stood at his post near the Captains chair.

"All systems report ready, Captain Black" Commander Yeager reported, checking his console.

"Good, hack the networks; I want this entire city to know what we want and what will happen if they dare refuse us" Regina commanded. Down below in the city, the confused citizens of Smashopolis suddenly took notice to all of the digital screens attached to various buildings around the city, including their electronic devices as the Black Shadow hacked their networks. Even the other smashers in the city took notice when they saw the stadium screen turn on, showing Regina's intimidating face.

"Who is that?" Ness asked.

"No idea, but whoever she is, she looks hostile" Bowser shrugged.

 _"Citizens of the city, I am Regina Black, Captain of the Black Shadow dreadnaught Thanatos,"_ Regina began. _"As some of you may be aware, your city was recently attacked by several ships earlier, and you are probably wondering why that was. I can assure you that will be explained"._ The citizens all murmured among themselves as they awaited explanation from the dreadnaught captain, including the smashers.

 _"My superior General has been searching for a man in this city named Lloyd Florence, and he has given me orders to locate and capture him alive. This is what he looks like,"_ Regina's face was temporarily replaced with an image of Lloyd, which worried the smashers when they realized why this massive ship was here above the city. Seconds later, Regina's face reappeared in place of Lloyd's face. _"Why my boss wants this man is not your concern, but what should be your concern is the very city in which you live. Also, my boss wants two specific items known as the Key to the Seven Worlds and the Sacred Jewel located in a large Research Facility near the forest. I expect you citizens to turn over Lloyd and the two items over to me within one hour, otherwise I will send an assault team down to search the city for both of them by force, and I can assure you that a lot of you will die. And don't you dare even consider attempting an attack on my ship, because if you do, I will retaliate using lethal force. One hour, that's all you've got, and then I send down the assault teams and start killing"._ The screens then returned to normal as did all the other networks around the city, leaving the citizens in a frightened state, including the smashers.

"Oh no, Lloyd!" Peach gasped.

"I had a feeling that was the reason that ship is here" Link replied.

"Then what do we do? You heard what that freaky woman said; if Lloyd isn't turned over to them in one hour, she'll attack the city" Bowser questioned.

"I... I don't know" Link replied, not sure at all what to do. There was no way that any of them would hand Lloyd over to the Black Shadow organization since they knew he'd be killed if they did that, but the smashers and everyone in Smashopolis knew the fate that awaited them if they refused Regina's demands.

At the same time back at the Research Facility, Samus, Mario, Ike, Peppy, and all the other smashers in the building had heard Regina's entire warning and knew now that the entire city was in danger, just as Lloyd himself feared that it would be.

"Oh no, we've got to get that jewel and the key now" Samus said in fear, now running out of an empty room down the corridor towards the elevator.

"We're not actually going to _give_ those crazy freaks what they want, are we?" Ike questioned, rushing up beside her.

"Of course not! We're going to remove them from the safe and hide them somewhere where the Black Shadow can't find them" Samus snapped.

"But where? We still haven't figured out where to hide them yet" Peppy inquired.

"We'll figure that out later, but right now, we've got to get them out of this place before more Black Shadow troops arrive and storm the place" Samus replied as she and the others entered the elevator and selected the secure basement level.

Inside the ventilation shaft, Lip had reached a nuclear medicine research room where Faust and his three guards were currently searching for the Key and the jewel. As she slowly opened the vent, she hovered down behind a metal crate, not noticing Faust and his guards at first. But then Lip heard a cry of pain from nearby and peeked out from behind the crate to see what was going on, and that's when she saw Faust and his guards; one of them was beating up a scientist for information.

"Where are they?! You heard the message; our boss wants them!" the guard demanded, violently kicking the scientist in the ribs.

"I'm... not telling you!" the scientist coughed defiantly.

"You looking to die?! Cough up the location of the key and the jewel or you die!" The guard threatened, drawing his laser revolver. As the scientist pleaded for his life, Lip couldn't stand seeing these evil men inflicting harm on innocent people any longer, so she rushed out from behind the crate and pointed her flower rod at the guard, showering him with a rain of magic sleeping spores which knocked him unconscious and caught the attention of Faust and his other two guards.

"Hey! Who the fuck let you in?!" Faust demanded, aiming his weapon at Lip. She quickly cast a shield spell which prevented the laser beams from hitting her, then she showered Faust and the other guards with sharp edged flower petals using her flower rod. The petals didn't do much damage, but they did slash the Black Shadow thugs on theirs face and uniforms, cutting them. The scientist quickly ran away to safety as Lip spread her wings and flew up high towards the open air vent, but Faust saw that she was trying to escape and blasted the vent opening with his weapon, collapsing it.

"Your not getting away from me, you meddling sprite!" he yelled angrily, wiping blood from the cuts on his face and firing several shots at Lip as she flew towards the exit. But before she could fly out of the room and into the corridor, one of the guards kicked Lip across the room where she slammed into several containers of biohazardous waste and lay stunned.

"Take that, you flower sprite," the guard hissed coldly. "Thought you'd get away, did you?! Well guess what, you thought wrong!". He then questioned Faust on what to do about Lip.

"Terminate her; she can't be allowed to escape" Faust ordered.

"With pleasure" the guard sneered, drawing his assassins knife.

Lip noticed that her magic rod was laying close beside her as she lay stunned on the floor. Seeing that she was about to be killed, Lip remembered Snakes words from earlier and then realized that this was a kill or be killed situation, which meant she had no other option but to do something she regretted even thinking of. She had hesitated on killing once by using a sleeping spell, but Lip had no time for that again. Quickly regaining her strength, Lip quickly grabbed her flower rod and made it fire a blast of razor sharp flower seeds straight at the guard at the speed of flying bullets using a high level attack spell.

The guard screamed in pain as the seeds blasted right through his chest and out his back, spraying blood all over the walls as his heart was shredded to pieces by the seeds, killing him. Lip's eyes widened in horror as the guard fell dead to the floor with blood pooling beneath him; she had just killed someone, for the first time in her life.

"You little...!" Faust hissed with fury, raising his laser revolver at her, but Lip quickly used her petal shower spell and slashed Faust's weapon hand with sharp edged rose petals, making him drop his laser revolver. Seizing the chance, Lip cast another sleep spell which showered Faust with flower spores that caused him to grow sleepy. He slumped to the floor, cursing angrily at Lip just as he fell asleep from the spores. Lip quickly rushed out of the room with a great pang of guilt running through her from having to kill a living person.

Despite the fact that those men were evil, Lip still regretted having to use deadly force on one of them to defend herself. She knew that those other two that had been put to sleep would eventually wake up within an hour after the sleeping spores effect wore off, and then they'd come looking for her and the other smashers in the facility. Once Lip was outside in the corridor, she ran into R.O.B.

"Oh, Lip; did you find any survivors?" the robot asked curiously.

"I saved one from those men in black uniforms in that room over there," Lip replied, pointing at the entrance to the nuclear medicine research room. "I... I killed one of them...". R.O.B noticed tears forming in Lip's eyes when she mentioned killing one of Faust's guards.

"Lip, you did what you had to do to survive," R.O.B replied, understanding why Lip was so upset. "There's no need to feel remorse for what you did. If you held back, you'd have probably been killed".

Lip sighed and then wiped her eyes, nodding, "Yes, your right. Did you find any other survivors either?".

"Only a few, and they're injuries are pretty bad. Samus and Snake called for help, and Sheik, Peppy, Falco, Ike, Robot Chicken, and Mario found two scientists in the bio labs on the first floor. Fox and Krystal headed down to the basement level to obtain the key and the jewel and should be heading back up here soon" R.O.B replied.

"What'll we do about the city? I heard the warning from the Black Shadow about them attacking the city if we don't hand Lloyd over to them" Lip asked worriedly.

"I'm not sure, but we've got to think of something, and we need to find out where Lloyd is after we leave the facility. If this Regina person decides to send down armed troops to search the city, Lloyd's life could be in terrible danger" R.O.B replied just as he and Lip heard footsteps behind them; it was Samus, Snake, Robot Chicken, Sheik, Mario, Peppy, Fox, Falco, Ike, and Krystal.

"Lip, R.O.B, we've got the key and the jewel. We need to get out of here before more Black Shadow reinforcements show up," Samus announced. "Lets get back to my ship, and quickly".

"What about the survivors" Lip questioned.

"I called Master Hand and informed him about what happened here. He's sent medical choppers to airlift the survivors to Smashopolis Hospital" Samus replied as she lead them out of the building where they heard several helicopters approaching from above.

"That must be them," Snake replied. "Lets get back to Smash Mansion and hide the Key and the jewel".

...

...

Forty minutes later, Lloyd awoke from his sleep and found that the water level in the sewer gully had risen a few feet higher than it had been before, and right over the bridge that he'd come across before sleeping.

"Oh great, now what?" Lloyd muttered, finding himself trapped. The end of the passage where he had been sleeping was a dead end, and the only way across the passage was the bridge which was now blocked by sewage water. There was no way that Lloyd could swim across it since the current was moving too fast, and the water was filled with sewage, making it toxic; Lloyd would most likely get sick from swimming in it, and it had an incredibly foul odor.

"Damn it, how am I going to get out of here now?" Lloyd cursed, trying to figure out a way across. He noticed that the guardrail bars from the bridge were sticking high enough out of the water to possibly run across, but it seemed risky. Lloyd knew that jumping to the other side wasn't possible since the passage was too wide, and walking through the filthy water was completely out of the question. Lloyd decided to take his chances and run across the rail.

He didn't know how long it would be until the water level dropped low enough to get back across the bridge, and he couldn't stay hiding under the city for too long either. If Lloyd had to guess, the Black Shadow had probably sent reinforcements to search the sewer system, and since he had been sleeping, they might have already entered the sewer system to search for him. Lloyd quickly braced himself, counted, and then ran as quickly as he could onto the rail and sped across to the other side. Jumping down to the ground, Lloyd rushed down the long passageway where he saw a rusty old sign bolted on the brick wall with two arrows on them. The one pointing left was labeled "MANHOLE EXIT" and the one pointing the way he came said "SEWAGE TREATMENT WATERWAY".

"Finally, a way out of this foul place" Lloyd said with relief, rushing down the left passage where he saw a ladder at the end leading up and out of the sewer system. Lloyd quickly reached the ladder and began climbing up as quick as he could, wondering what was happening in the city on the ground above him.

* * *

 **A/N: Things really look bad for Smashopolis now. What will become of Lloyd once he returns to the surface? Future chapters will answer that, until next time...**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hey folks, three months of waiting is finally over and chapter nine is finally here. My big fan, Witch Knight Daisy gave me some tips on how to write new chapters, so I took the liberty of spending time to do so. My life has been very busy too, which is why chapter delays happen, but I've finally completed this big chapter and I hope you fans enjoy it. Also, some new guest smashers will be making an appearance in this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are all that I own.**

* * *

Chapter 9: Attack Of The Black Shadow

Lloyd pushed the heavy manhole cover off the top of the sewer exit and pulled himself out, feeling greatly relieved to be out of that foul place at last, but his relief turned to fear and horror as he looked up and saw what was hovering over the city.

"No, oh God, no! Not them," Lloyd's eyes widened in horror as he saw the Black Shadow organization emblem on the side of the enormous ship above him. "They've found me! I've got to find the other smashers". But as he ran through the panicking crowds, they suddenly recognized him as the man Regina had mentioned and then pointed at him.

"Its him! The one they want!" One man shouted out.

"After him! Don't let him get away!" Another person yelled and then the entire crowd started chasing after Lloyd, who turned around and found himself being chased.

"Hey, what are you people doing?!" Lloyd shouted as he started running. He had no idea what the crowd was chasing him for, but Lloyd knew that whatever the reason was, it couldn't be good.

"Give him to that ship! It's the only way to save our city!" A hippie cried out, following the crowd. Lloyd's heart beat faster with fear as he ran down the streets of the city as quickly as he could after hearing what the hippie just shouted out. He was not just frightened about being caught, but also for the reason that the crowd was chasing him. If Lloyd had to guess, the captain of that Black Shadow dreadnaught must have coerced the pubic into handing him over to the Black Shadow organization by threatening to destroy the city unless they complied with their demands.

The Black Shadow had always done this to many other civilizations on various inhabited planets that they found worthy of conquering. If they refused the coercion, Ridley would either level the planet surface with nuclear weapons, or destroy the entire planet with the Xcelerator Cannon if it proved to be too rebellious. Lloyd knew that if the crowd caught him, he'd be handed over to Ridley and tortured horrendously until he finally killed him, but if he got away, the Black Shadow would most likely come after him themselves.

"Damn it! I can't let them catch me!" Lloyd panted as he ran into a narrow alley and quickly climbed up onto a fire escape ladder leading up. Once Lloyd was on the metal stairs, he kicked the ladder off the fire escape so no one would follow him, then he began running up the metal stairs as several people ran into the alley and tried to find another way up the fire escape. Once Lloyd made it to the top, he got a full view of the enormous ship hovering above the city and saw the registration number and designation on the side of its armored dark grey hull; it read, _B.S.D.N Thanatos, NVT-658._

"Oh no, it can't be" Lloyd muttered in dread. He knew all too well who the captain of this massive ship was, and that person was Regina Black, the pure evil butcher of countless innocent planets. This dreadnaught was one of the ship's that had attacked Lloyd's starship, and destroyed most of his assault fleet back in deep space. Lloyd didn't know much about Regina's horrible past, but he did know that she had been responsible for the destruction of many other planets that rebelled against the Black Shadow organization, along with the mass executions of hundreds of civilians back on his home planet of Earth in his own universe.

Lloyd knew that given her history of savagery, Smashopolis would most likely face total destruction if Regina demanded it, but not before carrying out mass executions of every civilian in the entire city. He had to find a way to fight off that ship before it had a chance to strike, but his ship was too badly damaged for combat, and he knew of no other ship that would be any match against a dreadnaught.

The bright red glare of the setting sun reflected off the hull of the _Thanatos,_ giving the impression of blood covering its surface. This ship had a mean looking appearance, which fully suited the nature of its Captain, and Lloyd felt greatly intimidated by it. He ran to the edge of the apartment building and jumped into the next building closest to it, trying to get as far away from the crowd as possible. At the same time, the smashers looking for Lloyd noticed the large crowd of people near the apartment complex, trying to find a way up.

"What's going on over there?" Pokemon Trainer pointed at the crowd.

"I'm not sure, but somethings definitely going on" Bowser replied.

"Hey, someone's running up there on the roof of that building," Ness pointed out. "Look, I think it's Lloyd". They all looked up and saw Lloyd jumping across another building.

"It _is_ Lloyd," Donkey Kong confirmed. "That crowd must be chasing him".

"Probably to try and hand him over to the Black Shadow, no doubt" Lucas guessed.

"I'd better go get him and find out where he's been" Pit replied, spreading his wings.

He then flew up to the top of the apartment complex where Lloyd was running towards the end of the building and stopped in front of him.

"Whoa," Lloyd exclaimed, skidding to a stop. "Pit! I didn't even notice you. What's going on here?".

"Where have you been? We've been out for several hours looking everywhere for you" Pit asked him.

"I got lost in the city and then several Black Shadow fighter shuttle's came after me and started shooting at me. I jumped into a manhole and ended up under the city for almost an hour until I finally found a way out. Once I came back up into the city, I saw that dreadnaught above me and that's when that crowd down there started chasing me" Lloyd explained.

"I know, it's because they're scared," Pit replied gravely. "The captain of that ship threatened to attack the city if they didn't hand you over to them within an hour. But don't worry, we have no intention of doing that".

"I was afraid of that," Lloyd shook his head, realizing that his theory was correct. "We've got to find a way to protect this city, because I guarantee that it's going to be attacked with the next several minutes".

"How? That ship is enormous! It's almost as big and wide as this city" Pit asked curiously.

"I'm not quite sure," Lloyd said regrettably. "My ship is too damaged to go into combat again, and even if it could, it would be no match for that dreadnaught alone; it's far too powerful for one ship to stand against".

"Maybe we should ask Master Hand and see if he has any ideas" Pit suggested. But before Lloyd could answer, a long beam of green light shined on him from the _Thanatos_ above, then vanished. Shortly afterwards, the voice of Captain Regina erupted from the massive ship and all across the city.

 _"Lloyd Florence, my ship has detected your presence and found you,"_ Regina's voice boomed from the dreadnaught. _"If you value the lives of every civilian in this city, you will give yourself up to me within the next thirty minutes. I suggest you deeply consider my demands, because if you don't, my death squads will make short work of every man, woman, and child in this city"._ Everyone in the entire city was filled with terror after hearing Regina's horrifying warning, including the smashers and the guest smashers, but Lloyd was outraged. He would not allow Regina to claim the lives of every innocent civilian in this city, not without a fight.

Lloyd pulled out his communication device from his armor and switched it on, then said, "Black Shadow dreadnaught _Thanatos,_ this is Lloyd Florence". There was no reply at first, but then Regina's voice boomed out from the massive ship again.

" _Ah, Lloyd Florence, have you decided to give yourself up? You'll be saving a lot of lives if you do"_ the evil dreadnaught captain replied in a sardonic tone.

"Don't patronize me, you murderous bitch," Lloyd hissed coldly. "If you think I'm going to hand myself over to your gang of mass murderers, your beyond insane. As for this city and its citizens, if you want to kill them, your going to have to kill me first, cause I'm not letting them fall victim to the likes of you! If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight your gonna get. If you want me, your gonna have to send everyone of your fucking goons down here, cause I'm not holding back. You want a fight?! I'll give you a fucking war!. I'll eliminate anyone who tries to harm me or this city; Lloyd Florence out!".

He then stuffed the device back into his armor just as Regina spoke up again, sounding very angry this time.

" _So, that's your decision then?! So be it! You'll pay for defying me, Florence; mark my words!"_ Regina snarled angrily over the ship's intercom.

"Man, you totally pissed her off Lloyd," Pit replied, grinning. "Did you really mean what you said about fighting back?".

Lloyd nodded, "Every word".

"But how exactly are you going to fight that dreadnaught? You said your ship's not fit for combat, and there's no way you can take on an army of enemy troops alone" Pit wondered.

"That's where you smashers come in," Lloyd implied. "If we're going to protect Smashopolis and the two sacred items, then we'll all have to stand up and fight, and I know a few weaknesses about that dreadnaught. If we work together, we might be able to stand up against them. I doubt that we could actually destroy the _Thanatos_ , but we might at least be able to cripple it".

"Okay Lloyd, what's the plan?" Pit asked curiously.

"Contact the other smashers and the guest smashers and meet up at Smash Mansion, I've got a plan" Lloyd instructed.

...

...

"Is the Key and the Sacred Jewel secured?" Ike asked Zelda, who had finished placing a protection spell over the two sacred items now hidden in a secret safe in the basement of Smash Mansion.

"Yes, the spell I placed on the safe will disguise it to make it look like part of the brick wall. If the Black Shadow organization raids the mansion, they'll only see and feel a solid wall in place of it" Zelda explained.

"Good, the last thing we want is for the safe to fall into their hands" Ike said with relief.

Just then, R.O.B came downstairs and said, "Pit just arrived, and he's found Lloyd".

"He did? Where was he?" Ike asked.

"Lloyd was ambushed by Black Shadow fighter shuttle's several hours ago after leaving the mansion and was forced to hide in the sewer system. Pit found him running on top of an apartment complex from a crowd of civilians eager to hand him over to the Black Shadow" R.O.B explained.

"I figured as much," Zelda replied. "They tried to capture him just the other night and failed, so I doubt that they'd just give up looking for him so easily".

"But what are we going to do now? The cities going to be attacked in less than thirty minutes" Ike asked, growing nervous.

"Lloyd says he has a plan to take on that dreadnaught above the city, so he wants us all to meet up in the ballroom right away with Master Hand to discuss a battle plan" R.O.B explained.

"Take on _that_ massive ship?! How would we do that? That things almost as big and wide as a city" Ike exclaimed doubtfully.

"Just follow me into the ballroom and Lloyd will explain everything" R.O.B insisted, leading the way. Two minutes later, R.O.B, Ike, and Zelda arrived inside the ballroom where Lloyd, Master Hand, all the other smashers, and the guest smashers were waiting for them.

"Ah, there you are," Master Hand replied. "Lloyd informed me about the situation and so I've planned a strategy to protect our city".

"And what is this strategy?" Zelda asked.

Lloyd stepped forward, then said, "Master Hand and I contacted the other realms and informed them of the danger, and the citizens of those realms have agreed to help us in our battle with the Black Shadow organization. We've also got some other guest smashers here that arrived earlier over here". The smashers turned their attention to the corner of the room where the guests stood. They were the two vampire sisters, Remilia and Flandre Scarlet, their maid Sakuya Izayoi, and their gatekeeper and gardener, Hong Meiling from the _Touhou Project_ realm in Japan.

The female fighters from the _Dead Or Alive_ realm in Japan were also there; they were Helena Douglas, Kasumi the kunoichi, Ayane, Lei Fang, Tina Armstrong, Lisa Hamilton, Kokoro, Marie Rose, Rachel, Momiji, Christie, Mila, Hitomi, Nyotengu, and Honoka.

"We are honored to meet you all, and are glad to be of service in any way we can" Remilia bowed briefly.

"Me too! Don't forget me" Flandre said, holding her hand up and jumping up in excitement. Peach couldn't hold back her affection towards Flandre's cuteness and then rushed up and hugged her close to her.

"Ooh, Flandre, your so cute! I just wanna hug you close" she cooed, embracing Flandre.

"Um, thank you," Flandre blushed with slight embarrassment as the other smashers and the guests laughed softly at this sight. Even Lloyd couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle. "Could you let me go now?".

"Now now, Peach," Master Hand chuckled. "I'm glad you like Flandre, but now is not the time for fooling around. This is serious business that we're dealing with".

"Oh, sorry," Peach turned red in the face with embarrassment as she let go of Flandre. "I couldn't help it; she's just so cute".

"Try to have some self control then" Ayane suggested sternly.

"So what's the plan?" Ike asked curiously.

"It's all laid out here," Lloyd placed a portable 3D projection device he'd taken from his starship on the floor in front of him and activated it, which displayed a 3d image of Smashopolis and the _Thanatos._ "As many of you probably know by now, the captain of this massive dreadnaught intends to send down an army of death squad troops all over the city, which we'll all need to eliminate to protect the citizens. But our main concern is the dreadnaught, and our goal will be to destroy it".

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt," Rayman cut it. "But won't destroying it above the city be the wisest thing to do? I mean, all the debris from the explosion will cause a lot of damage to the city".

"He does have a point there" Kasumi inquired.

"Yes, that's true," Lloyd nodded, tapping a button on the projection device, changing the view to the sea area far away from the island. "And that's why we'll need to lure the _Thanatos_ away from the city into an unpopulated area where Samus, Metaknight, the Star Fox team, the Smashopolis defense forces, and I will launch a full assault on the ship and attempt to destroy it. Master Hand contacted General Pepper from Fox's realm and he'll be sending his federation fleet in to assist us in our battle with the Black Shadow. Once the _Thanatos_ has been taken down, we'll then attack the other Black Shadow vessels in space and work our way towards their flagship, the _Death's Head"._

"How many ships will we be up against exactly?" Fox asked curiously. Lloyd switched the projection, showing the Black Shadow fleet in space.

"At least well over 111 in total," he pointed at the hologram of Black Shadow vessels, and several other space vessels collaborating with the Black Shadow organization. "The Black Shadow organization has a fleet of fifty destroyers, fifty warships, ten dreadnaughts, and then there's the flagship, the _Death's Head._ The warships are the Black Shadow's standard battleships and pack quite a bit of firepower, but their armor isn't as strong as the armor on the destroyers, and they have only have one set of shields. The destroyers are larger than warships and pack a lot of firepower, and they have stronger shields and armor, so taking them down won't be so easy".

"What about the dreadnaughts? Those ships look pretty big and tough" Slippy asked.

"Those ships will need to be avoided if possible. Dreadnaughts are the Black Shadow organizations most powerful battleships, and they're extremely difficult to take out" Lloyd answered.

"How powerful are you talking here?" Snake asked curiously.

Lloyd leaned forward with a stern expression and grimly replied, " _Very_ powerful. Those dreadnaughts have tripled plated armor hulls, primary and secondary shield generators, fifty laser cannons, ten super laser cannons, plus twenty-seven super photonic grenade launchers. Dreadnaughts don't go down easy, so we'll need to avoid confrontation with them unless we absolutely must".

"We still have to deal with the _Thanatos_ though" Daisy reminded.

"Yes, and that's why we need to start evacuating as many citizens as possible so that they don't get caught in the crossfire. Master Hand has already arranged plans to have the military escort the citizens to safety on several sea cruise ships down at the Smashopolis Seaship Docks, and that's where you smashers come in" Lloyd explained carefully.

Master Hand then spoke up to all the smashers and the guest smashers. "Your duty will be to protect the ferries and the citizens aboard them while Lloyd, Fox, Wolf, Slippy, Falco, Krystal, Peppy, Metaknight, and Samus lead the attack on the dreadnaught above the city. You can be sure that the captain of that ship will send down ground troops like she promised, and so all of you will need to defend the citizens boarding the ferries against any Black Shadow death squad troops that try to attack them".

"But how will Lloyd be able to fight that dreadnaught without his ship? It's too badly damaged to even move" Krystal asked.

"Yes, I've been meaning to ask how that would be possible," Lloyd replied. "What type of ship is available at the Starship Yards that I can use to fight the _Thanatos?"._

"Ah yes," Master Hand said with a wave. "I've arranged a special ship for you to use in our battle against the Black Shadow, and its down in the Dry Dock ready and waiting for you".

"Oh? And what kind of ship is it?" Lloyd asked, sounding interested.

Master Hand tapped a button on the projector and then an image of a large saucer shaped vessel appeared on it. It's hull was painted a deep sea blue color, and its impulse engine array all around the side of it glowed red.

"Wow, what type of ship is this?" Charlone exclaimed in wonder.

"It's looks like a UFO" Stan said.

"Whatever it is, it looks cool" Cartman replied.

"This ship is probably the most powerful ship that Smashopolis has, and its called an Ultraship, which we named _U_ _.S Anastasia,_ " Master Hand replied. "Two years ago, Earth was threatened by an unknown alien species who sent moon sized mines towards the planet in an attempt to destroy it, so this Ultraship was built to destroy these mines and fight the alien fleet before they could do any harm to our world. This battle was referred to as the _Astro Chase_ war".

"Wow, so this ship is the one I'm going to use?" Lloyd asked in amazement.

"Yes, it's all yours for now, and Samus will show you how to operate it once you get down to the Dry Dock" Master Hand replied.

"I wanna ride in the blue spaceship with Lloyd! Can I?" Flandre begged her sister.

"Sorry Flan, but I'll need your help protecting the citizens on the ferries, so you can't do that" Remilia said, shaking her head.

"Aww, I wanna be with Lloyd! He's so sexy!" Flandre complained.

"Um, Flan, I think your way too young to be having "those" types of thoughts about guys" Lloyd inquired, blushing. He had to admit that a lot of woman would give anything to hang out with him since he had a lot of muscles and was as strong as a bull, but Lloyd never thought a child would have such sexual thoughts about him.

"Hey, I may look like a kid, but I'm actually four centuries old" Flandre corrected him.

"What?! Your joking, right?" Lloyd exclaimed in surprise.

"It's true, Lloyd. We vampires age much differently than humans, and we grow at a slower pace as well. I myself am about four hundred years old" Remilia said.

"Wow, so they'd be like old ladies if they were human" Hans joked.

"Who are you calling old ladies? Got something against us?" Flandre glared at him with that "yandere" expression and tone that she often used when angered.

"Whoa, I'm only joking," Hans chuckled nervously, shaking his hands. "No offense intended".

"That's enough now," Master Hand scolded. "This is serious business, mind you. Now let's all get out there and protect our city".

...

...

"Captain Regina, it's been thirty minutes. Shall we send down the death squads?" Commander Yeager asked the captain of the _Thanatos._

"Not yet, I'll give them five more minutes, then I shall send in the death squads to do the job for me," Regina replied sternly. "However, tell the death squad troops on the battle bridge to go on standby. I want them fully armed and ready for the enforcement mission if the city fails to comply to our demands".

"Do you think they'll comply? It's been almost an hour" Commander Yeager asked curiously.

"Once the citizens get desperate, they'll probably reconsider defying us. But if they refuse, then I shall order the death squads to tear the city apart until they find Lloyd and the two sacred items. The General wants them all, and I'll see to it that he gets them" Regina replied.

...

...

As the _Thanatos_ made preparations for the invasion, Samus, Lloyd, and the Star Fox team entered the Smashopolis Dry Dock where the Ultraship _Anastasia_ was being fueled and prepped for battle.

"There it is, Lloyd," Samus pointed out. "The _U.S Anastasia,_ and it's yours to pilot".

Lloyd was amazed at the sight of such an amazing space vessel. The _Anastasia_ was about three times the size of Lloyd's own ship, had six grey colored turrets all around the side which fired solar plasma beams, cosmic energy beams, energy seeking missiles, and space decoy mines, and its hull was painted deep sea blue just like he'd seen in the hologram. The saucer shaped vessel sat on four landing legs and a small docking ramp was extended from underneath it to allow Lloyd and Samus aboard.

"Wow, it's bigger than I thought it would be. Even my own ship isn't as big as this one" Lloyd exclaimed as they walked up the ramp and into the Ultraship.

"Yes, it's an amazing ship, and its very powerful as well. I'll show you how to pilot the Ultraship before we take off to fight the dreadnaught" Samus lead him into the ship's bridge where he saw the captains chair in front of a large viewscreen. Below the screen was a wide control console of the same color as the ship's hull which had two joysticks in front of it as a means of steering the ship with triggers on the tops to fire the weapons. In front of the joysticks was a targeting computer, on the right side of the console were four screens with controls for the weapon systems such as the solar plasma beams, cosmic energy beams, energy seeking missiles, and space decoy mines. Above the viewscreen were three other small screens which gave Lloyd the status of the shields and main power.

...

...

As Samus began explaining to Lloyd how to work the ship, the other smashers and the guest smashers stood at the ferry docks waiting for the citizens to start boarding the five ferries parked at the docking ramps. The DOA fighters guarded the ferry named _S.S Starlight_ at the fourth ramp, and Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny stood watch near the _S.S Sylph_ in their super hero forms, Toolshed, Human Kite, Coon, and Mysterion. The other three ferries, _S.S Venus, S.S Aurora,_ and _S.S Kimberly_ were being watched by the other smashers and some of the other guest smashers as well.

"That dreadnaught hasn't made a move yet. Do you think they know we're trying to evacuate the city?" Hans asked Charlone.

"I'm pretty sure the thugs onboard it are aware of something, but I can't be sure" she replied as dozens of police SUV's and military personal began swarming the city, warning citizens of the danger and urging them to board the ferries at the docks.

"In either way, they could attack at any moment, so we'd best be prepared for it" Wein said, looking up at the dreadnaught.

As the citizens began heading towards the ferries, Ness and Lucas boarded the _S.S Aurora_ where they joined Snake, Kirby, Peach, and the Scarlet Sisters. Link, Zelda, Midna, Lip, and Olimar boarded the _S.S. Kimberly_. Mario, Luigi, Daisy, Bowser, and Ganondorf boarded the _S.S Venus._ Captain Falcon, R.O.B, Ike, Marth, Roy, Lyn, and Pokemon Trainer boarded the _S.S Sylph,_ and the DOA fighters boarded the _S.S Starlight._

"We'll stay on the docks and guide the citizens onto the ship's" Rayman informed the smashers onboard the ships as the Kong's also stayed behind to guard the docks.

"I'll stay too" Globox offered, joining Rayman as the police began setting up blockades near the ferry boarding ramps to keep the citizens in an orderly fashion.

"Please form a line and board the ferries in an orderly fashion and stay together at all times. The next ferries will arrive shortly after departure of the docked ferries" the police chief instructed the citizens over the police SUV's built-in megaphone.

The citizens began to form lines near the blockades and several police officers began directing them onto the ferries in an orderly line. They were so busy tending to the public that no one noticed that the dreadnaught had armed it's weapon systems and locked onto the _S.S Kimberly_ and the _S.S Venus_.

Princess Zelda's elven senses immediately sensed the danger and quickly cast Farores Wind and teleported herself and everyone on the two ferries onto the docks just as the _Thanatos_ fired it's super laser cannons and blasted the ferries to pieces. The crowd of citizens began screaming in terror and panicked at the sight of the destruction of the two ferries.

"Jesus-a Christ! That was-a close one!" Mario gasped in relief.

"That was so scary" Flandre trembled, gripped her sister tightly.

"Zelda, what's going on?" Link asked, noticing the fear in Zelda's expression.

"They know we're trying to evacuate the city. They've started their assault" Zelda replied fearfully.

Just then, the voice of Regina erupted over the entire city, and she sounded very angry.

 _"You foolish little fuckers! Did you honestly think I'd allow you to escape?! You have pushed my patience past the limit, and now you're all going to pay for defying me"_ Regina hissed coldly.

Just then, hundreds of Black Shadow fighter shuttle's emerged from the dreadnaught and began sending heavily armed death squad paratroopers down into the city in numbers of over a thousand.

"The death squads! They're coming!" Lyn shouted, drawing her sword.

The citizens began to panic and scatter as the death squad troops touched down and prepared to attack.

"All right, girls, prepare to fight!" Helena announced, assuming a fighting pose; the other DOA fighters and the smashers also prepared to engage the death squads.

"Aaah, get me outta here!" Globox cried out in fear and ran away to hide.

"Hey, don't leave me here alone" Rayman called out to Globox, but he was already too far away to hear him.

"All units, all units! Enemy troops have entered the city. Prepare to engage, and shoot to kill" the police chief commanded over his radio, then grabbed his machine gun and prepared to engage the death squads.

...

...

Down at the Starship Yards, Samus had already boarded her own ship as Lloyd prepared to power up the _Anastasia_. After having Samus show him how everything onboard the ship worked, Lloyd had a clear idea of how to pilot and operate it. Just then, air raid klaxons began sounding all over the city and the Starship yards.

 _"Lloyd, I've just been informed by Master Hand that the Black Shadow dreadnaught just launched dozens of fighter shuttle's carrying death squad paratroopers. They're beginning their assault!"_ Samus informed urgently over the Ultraships com system.

"All right, I'm on it," Lloyd replied, flipping several switches on the control console and priming the engines. The _Anastasia_ powered up with a rumble and the propulsion engines glowed bright red all around the saucer. "Lets see what this ship can do".

Lloyd pushed the throttle lever forward and the saucer lifted up off the ground, then it's landing legs retracted and then the whole ship began rotating. Lloyd then pushed the joysticks forward and he was off. Samus and the Star Fox team took off in their own ships and headed for the _Thanatos._ The battle for Smashopolis was on!

...

...

"PK Freeze!" Lucas cried, blasting three death squad troops in front of him with his PSI Freeze attack, freezing them in solid ice.

"PK Thunder!" Ness cried, electrocuting several other death squad troops attacking several children using PSI Thunder.

The children ran away to safety as Ness and Lucas fought to eliminate as many Black Shadow troops as they could. The military and the smashers also fought hard as the death squads fired their weapons at them and the citizens attempting to get away. The dreadnaught had destroyed the remaining ferries to keep the citizens from leaving the city, so they tried to find anywhere that they could hide, but many of them were gunned down by the death squads.

Pit flew above the chaos, firing magic arrows at the enemy troops and striking as many as he could, but there were far too many for him to take on all at once. Zelda relied on her magic attacks to defend herself, the Fire Emblem warriors used their swords and magic to defend several elderly people being chased by death squad troops, and the Growlanser warriors defended the children from oncoming troops.

"Yeah, take that, butt fucker! Don't mess with the Coon!" Cartman taunted, slashing a death squad troopers eyes with his sharp clawed raccoon gloves and blinding him. Stan then fired his nailgun at the trooper and took him down with one hit to the head.

"You messed with the wrong city!" Midna yelled, stabbing several troopers with her hair blade attack, but more kept on coming.

The fighter shuttle's then began attacking from above, shooting at the buildings and at the crowds below in the city.

"They're attacking from the sky! Target those fighters and destroy them!" An army tank pilot shouted at the gunman atop the tank cannon.

The soldier quickly fired the tank cannon at several oncoming fighter shuttle's, striking only one of them and doing minimal damage to its shields. Normal based ammo was no match for energy shield technology.

"Our shells are ineffective. They're not causing any damage to those fighters" the gunner reported to the tank pilot.

"Don't give up! Fire everything we've got!" The pilot commanded.

The fleet of military tanks continued firing at the enemy fighters, but their explosive shells did almost no damage to their shields. The fighter shuttle's then proceeded to wipe out the tanks firing upon them, destroying them tank by tank. The two PSI wielding smashers were able to take down a few of them using their most powerful signature PSI attacks. Ness used PK Rockin', and Lucas used PK Love to eliminate several fighter shuttle's near them.

Even with their shields at full power, they were no match for the sheer immense power of Ness's and Lucas most powerful PSI attacks. The blast of their attack blew through the shields and blasted the fighters into dust.

"Where are the reinforcements? They should be here by now" Lucas wondered as he used PK Shield to block several laser blasts fired at him from death squad troops.

No sooner had he said that, two large yellow solar plasma balls struck several fighter shuttle's attacking a building full of citizens, blowing them apart on contact. Ness and Lucas turned around and looked up to see a large blue saucer shaped vessel flying towards the chaos with the Star Fox team, Samus Aran's ship, and a squadron of red Raiden MK-II and blue Raiden MK-IIB fighters following it.

"Its Lloyd! And look, he's leading the others!" Ness pointed at the saucer.

...

...

"All Raiden fighters, concentrate your firing on the enemy fighters while me, Samus, and the Star Fox team concentrate on the dreadnaught" Lloyd commanded over the ship's com system.

The Raiden fighters immediately complied and quickly went after the fighter shuttle's attacking the city. Lloyd then steered the Ultraship towards the _Thanatos_ and Samus, Fox, Slippy, Falco, Peppy, Krystal, and Wolf followed him in their Arwing fighters.

" _Lloyd, how do we lure this ship away from the city?"_ Fox asked.

"Leave that to me. I've got a plan," Lloyd replied. "You and the others concentrate your fire on the dreadnaughts laser cannons and photonic grenade launchers while I target the front of it".

 _"All right, but I hope you know what your doing"_ Fox replied in compliance.

"Trust me, I've been a space marine for years, and I'll show you my moves" Lloyd assured Fox and then steered the Ultraship towards the front of the _Thanatos,_ and then he armed the cosmic energy cannons.

Once Lloyd reached the front of the dreadnaught, he fired several shots of purple cosmic energy balls at the ship's bridge, causing massive damage to its forward shields. After two more hits, the ship's forward shields had been reduced to 30%.

"Damn, this Ultraship _is_ powerful," Lloyd exclaimed as he read the forward shield status of the dreadnaught on the enemy ship analysis screen. "Even the _Daphne_ wasn't this strong, even after being refit".

Soon after a few more blasts, the dreadnaught had lost its forward shields, leaving it open for attack. Lloyd switched weapons and primed the solar plasma cannons, targeting the front of the dreadnaught. The plasma balls struck the ship's hull all over, but it's triple plated armor was hard to penetrate.

"All fighters attack the front of the dreadnaught using your strong weapons. The hull is heavily armored and will take a lot of hits to pierce through" Lloyd advised the other fighters over the com system, then rearmed the ship's cosmic energy cannons.

 _"Lloyd, watch out! You've got five fighter shuttle's on your tail"_ Samus warned over Lloyd's com system.

Lloyd checked the radar screen and saw five red dots headed for the center blue dot. Soon after, enemy laser cannon fire struck his ship's shields.

"Copy that," he replied. "Take out those fighters while I concentrate on the dreadnaught".

 _"I'm on it"_ Samus replied, zooming after the enemy fighters.

The battle continued to rage on as the fleet of raiden fighters and Black Shadow fighter shuttle's clashed with each other. Down below on the ground, casualty rates climbed even higher as the death squads and military troops battled all around the city. Hundreds of citizens had either been gunned down by the death squads, started running for their lives, or had hidden away from the chaos.

As if things couldn't get any worse, the _Thanatos_ sent out more death squads as their numbered depleted below. Most of the death squads began searching the city for the two sacred items as ordered by Captain Regina while the others continued exchanging fire with the military troops.

Although Lloyd and the other ally fighters did some damage to the dreadnaughts shields and armored hull, they didn't even come close to achieving victory. The dreadnaught was far too big and wide for them to deal enough damage to destroy it. Some of the smashers fighting on the ground below had been forced to retreat with some of the military troops as the death squad reinforcements landed from above.

The Black Shadow troops immediately began chasing after and firing upon the military troops and the smashers as they retreated, but Regina contacted the death squads and ordered them to let the smashers and the military troops go; their top priority was to find the sacred jewel and the Key. They were only to eliminate people getting in the way of their mission, not chase after those retreating.

The whole city had become a big battle ground, and the war that Lloyd had feared would happen had become a reality, and the forces of Smashopolis were greatly outnumbered. The battle tank weapons had almost no effect on the shields of the fighter shuttle's, so only the raiden fighters, Samus Aran's ship, the Arwing fighters, and Lloyd's Ultraship were the only ones capable of standing up against the Black Shadow.

It seemed impossible, but the hero's were losing, and things only seemed to be getting worse. But Smashopolis would never yield to their enemies, they would fight till the bitter end.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, that finally wraps up chapter nine after three months. Oh, and for those who don't know about the Ultraship, it is from the classic mac game, _Astro Chase 3D_ which was created by _First Star Software_ in 1994. That game is one of my personal favorites, and I've always imagined using the Ultraship in a fanfiction, so I've added in to this one. Until next time, see you then.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hey there SSBB fans, I'm back with another chapter. This one was a little delayed, but only about a month. Things start to heat up as a hostage crisis unfolds. What will the hero's do? Read on to find out.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are all that I own.**

* * *

Chapter 10: Hostage Crisis

Ness and Lucas had fled inside the enormous Smashopolis Mall, which was in complete chaos as shoppers fled into restrooms and locked the doors while some others hidden in various stores to hide from the death squad troops searching the mall for the sacred items.

Lip had also fled inside the mall and locked herself inside a large restroom which was empty. Most of her magic had been exhausted while fighting the death squads, so Lip had run into the mall to avoid confrontation with any other death squad troops until her magic recharged.

Lucas and Ness had hidden inside a fast food restaurant kitchen to recover from fighting the death squads, but danger still lurked all around them as death squad troops entered the restaurant and kicked over tables and shot anyone getting in their way.

"They're coming closer" Lucas whispered fearfully.

"Just stay quiet, and use PSI only when absolutely necessary" Ness replied softly.

The two boys crouched underneath a large fryer oven to avoid being caught as they heard more gunshots and the sound of chairs and tables being kicked over just outside on the other side of the door. This continued until they heard one of the troopers shout out to the other death squad troops to cease firing, then the two boys peaked out through the door and saw the trooper who barked the order speaking into what looked like a cellphone.

This trooper had a very intimidating appearance. He was a big, burly trooper who wore a black skull faced combat helmet over his head with special lenses which obscured his facile appearance. His black armored uniform bore the emblem of the Black Shadow organization on the front and he carried several grenades, combat knives, and an assault laser rifle. Ness and Lucas guessed that this evil thug was the leader of the death squads.

"Very well, it'll be done," the two boys heard the trooper reply, then he turned to his troops. "Change of plans, boys. Captain Regina wants us to capture as many hostages as we can. Round them up and take them into the center of the building, and make sure no one gets in or out".

Ness and Lucas heard the other death squad troops acknowledge in unison, then they began searching for anyone that might be hiding in the restaurant. They had already killed most of those who couldn't make it out or had been cowering under tables, but they had not yet searched the kitchen area.

"Hey, you two check the kitchen area. If there's anyone hiding in there, stun them and round them up" the boss trooper ordered.

Ness and Lucas began fearing for their lives as they heard two death squad troops approaching the kitchen door. They weren't sure whether or not the troops would kill them, but the part the two boys heard about being rounded up and taken hostage sounded almost as bad.

"Ness, what are we going to do? They'll find us for sure" Lucas whispered fearfully.

Ness wasn't sure what to do either. The emergency exit door near the end of the kitchen was locked, and the ovens were too small and hot to hide in. He looked all around and saw the only place big enough for both of them to hide in. It was a very filthy place, but it was there only chance of not getting captured.

"Lucas, the grease trap! It's our only chance" Ness whispered, crawling over to the large metal trap door in the floor.

"What?! That thing is filthy! We can't hide in there" Lucas protested in disgust.

"We've got no other choice, Lucas," Ness replied, pulling the grease trap door open. "If we don't, those thugs will find us and probably kill us".

The grease trap was shaped like a square and was big enough to hold both of them. Ness found that the trap was empty, but still had bits of grime and fat on the sides of it, and the space inside the trap was slippery and filled with very foul odor. Lucas quickly climbed inside the trap and Ness pulled the metal door shut just as the death squads troops entered the kitchen. It was pitch black inside, except for a small stream of light that shined in from a seam in the door.

"This thing must have been pumped out recently, cause there's almost nothing in here" Ness whispered, finding it hard to breath in such foul odor.

"It really reeks in here" Lucas complained, coughing.

"Shh, just bear with it and keep quiet, or they'll hear us" Ness scolded as he heard footsteps above them.

They heard the two troops moving things around and heard clanking and clattering from dishes and silverware being tossed around.

"I don't think anyone's in here. There's nothing but pots, pans, and fryer ovens in here" one of the troopers replied.

"Did you check inside the range ovens?" Another trooper demanded.

"No" came the reply.

"Well then get over there and check the damn ranges!" The angry trooper snapped.

Ness and Lucas heard the sound of oven doors opening and then closing, then they heard one of the thugs make a frustrated grunt.

"No one's in here. Let's get moving before the boss gets impatient" one of them replied.

Ness and Lucas both thought they were safe, until they heard the other thug mention the grease trap door in the floor.

"What? Check that filthy thing? There's no way anyone could be in there" the trooper protested.

"Just check it! The boss said he wants every nook and cranny in this building checked" the bigger trooper snapped impatiently.

Ness and Lucas feared for their lives as they heard the complaining trooper approach the grease trap door. The two boys glanced at each other and nodded, knowing what they had to do. They both charged their PSI as the thug fumbled with the grease trap door and pulled it open.

"PK Thunder!" Ness and Lucas cried out in unison, striking the thug with a strong blast of lightning.

"What in the-?" The other trooper exclaimed as the other thug was thrown into the wall by the lightning bolts and knocked unconscious.

"PK Freeze!" Lucas yelled, freezing the trooper in solid ice as he and Ness jumped out of the grease trap.

"Hurry Lucas, let's get out of here," Ness replied, rushing out of the kitchen and into the restaurant where they spotted a fire exit near the far right wall. "Head for the fire exit".

Lucas followed Ness past several overturned chairs, tables, and food stands towards the fire exit. However, they were so busy focusing on escaping that they didn't notice three other death squad troops coming out of one of the men's restroom and ten others coming out of the women's restroom; the troopers immediately spotted Ness and Lucas near the emergency exit door.

"What the-," one of them exclaimed, then drew his weapon and pointed at the boys. "Stop those two! Blast them!".

"Oh no, they saw us! Open the door, Ness!" Lucas urged Ness as he conjured PK Shield to shield them both from the laser blasts fired at them.

"It won't open, it's locked!" Ness cried, trying to open the fire exit door.

"Then blast it open with your PSI. I can't hold up my shield for much longer" Lucas snapped, feeling his shield starting to weaken.

"I can't, my PSI energy is still too low" Ness replied.

"Then run! I'll hold them off!" Lucas snapped, casting PK Fire at the attacking troops.

"What?! There's too many of them! You'll be overpowered" Ness protested.

"Just go! I've already lost my mother and brother, and I'm not going to lose my best friend either! I'll find a way out of this, so get out of here and regroup with the others while you still have a chance!" Lucas yelled, freezing two other troops firing at them.

Ness was about to protest, but then he saw twenty more troops arrive at the restaurant entrance to assist the present troops. There were now over thirty-two death squad troops attacking the two of them. Ness looked around and saw a nearby air vent that had been blown open by laser fire which looked big enough for him to fit into.

"Lucas, there's an open vent over there in the wall. We can both escape in it" Ness yelled over the laser fire.

"There's no time for me to escape! If I drop my shield even for a second, we'll both get hit! You've got to escape, now!" Lucas shot back, trying to keep his shield up.

"But Lucas-" Ness protested.

"JUST GET IN THAT VENT, YOU STUPID FOOL!" Lucas shouted firmly.

Seeing no point in arguing any further, Ness ran towards the vent as fast as he could and jumped inside it, leaving Lucas behind. He felt terrible about leaving his best friend behind, but Ness knew that Lucas had been right. If he had dropped his shield to follow Ness into the vent, the troops would have shot them with their laser rifles, and there was no way the two of them could evade the laser fire of thirty-one death squad troops.

"Don't worry, I'll find a way to save you, Lucas" Ness promised as he crawled through the air shaft, looking for a way out.

...

...

 _"Warning! New enemy fleet approaching"_ the _Anastasia's_ computer warned as Lloyd shot down five fighter shuttle's in front of him.

Lloyd checked the scanner and saw forty red dots headed towards the center, then he looked back up and saw forty more fighter shuttle's headed towards him.

"Damn! Those things just won't give up!" Lloyd cursed, then targeted the enemy fighters with the solar plasma cannons.

He began firing at the fighters as quickly as he could, destroying a lot of them, but more kept coming. The dreadnaughts shields had been heavily damaged by repeated fire from Lloyd's ship and the allied fighters, but it's weapon systems were still fully functional and had destroyed many allied fighters. The shields on Lloyd's ship had also taken heavy damage, and the cosmic energy weapon system was running low on power from using it against the dreadnaught, but he still had plenty of space decoy mines and energy seeking missiles.

 _"Lloyd, we're taking heavy losses. We've already lost nineteen raidens, and our Arwings have taken a heavy beating"_ Falco reported over Lloyd's com.

"What about Samus? Is she doing alright?" Lloyd asked, launching an energy seeking missile at a nearby fighter shuttle.

" _She destroyed several of the dreadnaughts rear super laser cannons and destroyed forty fighter shuttle's, but she had to retreat. Her ship is too weak to go on"_ Falco responded.

"Is there any sign of the reinforcements from the other realms?" Lloyd asked curiously.

 _"No, they still haven't arrived yet. I don't know why that is, but if the reinforcements don't arrive soon, we'll eventually have to retreat"_ Falco responded.

"Not going to happen! If we retreat, those fighter shuttle's and the death squads will overrun this city and capture it. We've got to keep fighting on" Lloyd snapped firmly.

 _"Lloyd, we're outnumbered and outgunned, and we've lost a lot of fighters and ground troops. Without those reinforcements, we don't stand a chance"_ Falco protested.

"Falco, we can't-," Lloyd paused for a moment when he noticed a change on his scanner. "Hang on, that's odd".

 _"What's going on? What is it?"_ Falco asked curiously.

"Its the enemy fighters; they're retreating" Lloyd replied in confusion.

The Star Fox team and the raiden fighter pilots checked their scanners and noticed the same thing. Every Black Shadow fighter shuttle had suddenly retreated back towards the dreadnaught. Down below, the death squads began retreating as well, which completely caught the military by surprise.

"This is so unlike the Black Shadow. They don't usually retreat unless they've been crippled or outnumbered. Somethings wrong" Lloyd said worriedly.

 _"Lloyd, the death squads are retreating out of the city and into the forest. We should return to the Dry Dock for now"_ Fox reported.

Lloyd thought about retreating, but he had a feeling that something was very wrong. The _Thanatos_ had taken heavy damage, but not enough damage to cripple it enough to force a retreat, so Lloyd knew that couldn't be the reason that all the fighter shuttle's were retreating.

"No, not yet. I want to see just what the hell is going on" Lloyd answered cautiously.

...

...

Lip peeked out of the restroom to make sure that the coast was clear. The gun firing sounds had stopped, so Lip decided to see if it was safe to come out of hiding. Her magic had regenerated and was up to full strength again, so Lip would be able to defend herself if she came in contact with any Black Shadow thugs.

"Hey you, halt! Stay where you are!" A mechanical male voice yelled on Lip's left.

She turned and saw a death squad trooper in a black skull helmet standing a few feet away from her, aiming a hideous looking laser rifle at her, then his eyes fell on Lip's flower rod.

"That thing your holding, drop it!" The trooper snapped.

Lip didn't know what to do. There was no way she'd be able to cast magic attacks in time before the thug shot her, and jumping off the balcony to the next floor down was too dangerous. She thought about flying off to safety, but Lip wasn't sure if there were other thugs nearby that might see her and shoot her down.

"Are you deaf, or just testing my patience?! I _said_ drop that fucking rod, NOW!" The trooper yelled, firing a warning shot at Lip's feet.

Lip was frightened and didn't know any way out of this, and there was no way she'd be able to fly away in time, but there was no way she would let herself be captured by this thug. Lip remembered what Lloyd had said about the savage ruthlessness the Black Shadow inflicted on their prisoners, and she did not want to become a victim of such a fate. Lip had an idea that she knew would be risky, but she'd rather risk it now than be taken prisoner and then be horrifically tortured by the Black Shadow organization. Lip leaned down and slowly placed her flower rod on the floor.

"Kick it over here" the thug demanded.

Lip felt her heart jump; she didn't expect that. All at once, her fear boiled over and she quickly reached back down to grab her flower rod.

"Hey! I said to kick it over here!" the thug snapped, preparing to shoot.

"Never!" Lip screamed, unleashing her razor petal attack at the thug.

The trooper yelled in pain as the razor sharp flower petals rained down on him and slashed his flesh all over, causing blood to splatter all around. Lip quickly spread her wings and took off as fast as she could before the thug had a chance to attack her. One of his eyes had been slashed by the razor petals, blinding it, and one of his fingers had been slashed off as well, causing extreme pain.

"AHHHHH! YOU FUCKING FLOWER SPRITE!" the trooper roared in pain and rage.

Lip flew all the way to the top of the mall where she shattered the window in the ceiling and flew out into the sunset sky to safety. But back down in the mall, fifty civilians had been rounded up by the death squads and forced to into the center of the mall, lead by the death squad leader, Sargeant Carridane Vasquez. Vasquez was a big, hideous, and very dangerous looking muscular Mexican trooper with short black hair, and scars on his face and arms from various fights in the past.

He was considered Regina's personal favorite since he enjoyed torturing his victims slowly and painfully. Vasquez was also one of the most aggressive, savage, and sadistic fighters that the Black Shadow organization had ever recruited, which earned him the title of "Death Shadow". Not much was known about his past before joining the Black Shadow, only that Vasquez enjoyed killing and butchering whoever dared to mess with him. During a jungle mission back on Earth in his own universe, Vasquez and his team of death squad troops had been sent to exterminate a village full of african rebels who had been supplying the Black Shadow's enemies with supplies needed for their resistance groups.

On their way to the village, they were ambushed by a dominant male silverback gorilla who had seen the death squads as territory trespassers. In a sheer act of animalistic savagery, Vasquez immediately brutally attacked and beat up the gorilla, ripped off both of it's arms, shattered its teeth with his fists, and impaled it against a tree with sharp pointed tree branch, leaving it to die a slow a excruciating death.

And in an extra twisted way, Vasquez carved a nazi swastika on the gorillas head with a combat knife as it whimpered in agony. He had also tattooed a nazi deaths head on both his shoulders and a swastika with the devils number "666" tattooed on his forehead to give himself an intimidating sight to his enemies. Even Captain Regina herself and some of the other death squad troops feared him whenever they were in his presence due to his history of savageness.

"Corporal, are there any other civilians in this building? Vasquez asked one of the death squad troopers in his Mexican accent.

"No Sargeant, we've caught all the ones who hadn't escaped. It looks like there are fifty in all" the trooper informed.

"Good, I'll send word to Captain Regina that we have the hostages as ordered" Vasquez replied, contacting the _Thanatos_ with his communicator.

The trooper rejoined the other seventy death squad troopers currently watching the hostages to make sure they didn't escape. Among the hostages was Lucas, cuffed with chains like the rest of the hostages, and some of them were children and elderly people. Lucas knew that he'd be able to free himself using PSI, but there was no way he'd be able to take on seventy death squad troopers alone; he'd be overpowered and most likely killed.

"Ness, I hope you'll come like you promised" Lucas said softly.

"Hey, keep your fucking mouth shut! You've no right to speak unless told to do so!" A trooper snapped, tapping him roughly with his laser rifle.

As it turned out, Ness had already made it out of the building and onto the roof through the air shaft. High above, the massive Black Shadow dreadnaught hovered over the city with fighter shuttle's soaring around it. The fighting seemed to have stopped, for now.

"That's odd, why are those fighters not attacking?" Ness wondered.

From where he stood, he couldn't see what was going on in the city down below, but Ness was able to see down inside the mall through the enormous window built into the roof. And what he saw inside the mall below terrified him. Fifty civilians, men, women, and children were being held hostage in the center of an amphitheater by seventy death squad troopers, and what terrified Ness even more was that among the hostages were his mother and sister, Tracy, and Lucas.

"Oh God, no! Mom, Tracy, Lucas!" Ness gasped in horror.

He had no idea what these troops wanted them held hostage for, but whatever the reason, Ness had to find a way to save them. He thought about jumping down inside, then freeing Lucas and taking out the death squad troopers, but taking on seventy armed troopers would be too dangerous due to him and Lucas being outnumbered and outweaponed, and the hostages would be put in danger as well.

"Come on, Ness, think! What to do," Ness urged himself, tapping his head and trying to figure out what to do, then an idea popped in his head. "Think?! That's it! Why didn't I think of that before?".

Ness used his telepathy in an attempt to call Lucario, who was currently guarding the Transwarp Gate with Yoshi, Robot Chicken, and R.O.B helping him fight off death squad troopers that attempted to come near it. R.O.B had switched into combat mode and was armed with a mini gatling gun, twin RPG launchers, and a laser blaster. Yoshi relied on his egg tossing attacks to fight back against the death squads, Robot Chicken had switched his cybernetic wing into a laser blaster to attack with, and Lucario used his psychic abilities to reek havoc on his enemies.

"Enemy targets incoming; arming RPG's" R.O.B beeped as more Black Shadow troops headed towards them.

The robot armed his RPG's and fired them at the oncoming troopers, wiping out a bunch of them. Yoshi bashed several others with his tail and Lucario wiped out those surrounding him with his psychic attacks. Just as they seemed to be outnumbered, the Black Shadow troops suddenly started retreating, causing Yoshi, R.O.B, and Lucario to become confused.

"Bok bok bok? (Are they giving up?)" Robot Chicken clucked in confusion.

"That's odd, why are they retreating?" Yoshi wondered.

"I don't know, Yoshi. They greatly outnumber us and could easily take us down, so I assume something's up" R.O.B replied.

"Something _is_ up," Lucario replied, his ears purking up. "Ness is calling me with his telepathy. He says that seventy citizens are being held hostage at the Smashopolis Mall by death squad troopers, and Lucas is among them".

"Oh no, what'll we do?" Yoshi gasped in fear.

"Bok bok! (We gotta do something!)" Robot Chicken sqwalked, flapping his wings in an urgent manner.

"We've got to save those hostages. Ness and Lucas are outnumbered and not powerful enough to take all of them on at once, so we have to find a way to save them before something bad happens to them" Lucario declared.

"But what about the Transwarp Gate? If we leave it unprotected, those Black Shadow thugs might take control of it" R.O.B inquired.

"I'll go and help Ness save Lucas and the hostages. You and Yoshi stay here and guard the Transwarp Gate in case those troops return" Lucario instructed, then flew off into the sky.

"Bok bok (I'll help you too)" Robot Chicken called out, extending a set of metal wings from a jet pack in his pack and blasted off into the sky to assist Lucario.

...

...

Lloyd landed the _Anastasia_ back onto its landing platform and extended the docking ramp. Samus and the Star Fox team had also arrived and were currently inspecting the damage on their ships. The other fighter pilots that survived were also inspecting their Raiden fighters for any damage they received. As Lloyd stepped down the ramp, he met up with Snake and some of the guest smashers; the DOA fighter girls and the hero's from the Growlanser realm.

"Why did those enemy fighters just retreat like that? They could have taken you all out" Kasumi asked him.

"I don't know, but at least it gave us a chance to retreat as well to recover" Lloyd replied, retracting the docking ramp.

"How much damage did you all inflict on the dreadnaught?" Charlone asked curiously.

"Not enough," Lloyd replied bitterly. "We all managed to inflict some damage to its shields and super laser cannons, but not anywhere near enough to disable or destroy it. That ship is just too big and powerful for even a large fleet of fighters and an ultraship to destroy, and we've lost a lot of Raiden fighters already".

"Then how do we destroy it?" Snake wondered, growing worried.

"Unless we get those reinforcements from the other realms, we're out of luck. A small assault fleet is no match against a dreadnaught of that size and power" Lloyd said.

Just then, the group noticed something in the sky flying down towards them. It was none other than Lip, and she looked very upset as she landed in front of them.

"Lip? What's going on? Where've you been?" Snake asked with a bemused expression.

"I was confronted by a death squad trooper in the Smashopolis Mall and barely escaped with my life," Lip explained, still shaken up by what had happened between her and that trooper. "Those skull masked troops moved into the mall and started killing everyone in sight, even children. I tried to fight them off, but I was outnumbered, so I hid in a restroom until the commotion stopped. But I got caught and barely escaped after that".

Lloyd saw tears forming in Lip's eyes and then felt his blood boil with anger. Those murderous monsters had not only killed civilians, but also children; this was monstrous, this was cruel! The Black Shadow had apparently made it very clear that anyone who stood in the way of their objectives would be exterminated on sight. This was not the first time they had done this either.

Lloyd remembered back when he was a kid when the Black Shadow invaded his hometown back in his own universe, killing anyone who resisted against them. The worst part about the Black Shadow forces was that there was no declaration of war when they invaded other worlds, which was why many of them were caught off guard and unable to defend themselves in time, like Lloyd's Earth.

"Those bastards! They'll pay for this!" Lloyd growled, clenching his fists.

Just then, Samus rushed over to him looking very nervous.

"Samus, what's going on?" Snake asked in concern.

"I just got a message from the army commander saying that the death squads in the city are retreating from the Transwarp Gate and surrounding the Smashopolis Mall. He told me that the Captain of that dreadnaught hacked their communication systems and has a message for all of us" she explained gravely.

"What is it?" Lloyd asked, almost too afraid to listen.

"The Captain said that her troops are holding hostages in the mall and that if we don't hand over the Sacred Items over to them in twenty minutes, she'll order the death squads to kill everyone of the hostages in the building, and she said that there are children among them" Samus replied grimly.

Horrified expressions came over everyone's faces, especially Lloyd's. He knew of the horrible fate that awaited them if the Black Shadow had their way with those hostages, and he had no idea what to do.

"What are we going to do? We're not really going to give them what they want, are we?" Lip wondered fearfully.

"No, absolutely not," Snake replied. "We'll find a way to rescue the hostages".

"I wouldn't advise that," Samus warned. "The dreadnaught Captain also said that her death squads are guarding the entire mall from both inside and out, and if anyone attempts a rescue operation, she order the death squads to kill all the hostages and she'll continue the assault upon the city".

"What if we find a way to sneak past them?" Snake suggested.

"That won't work either," Lloyd answered. "They've got fifteen fighter shuttle's circling the mall and watching from above. If we approach the mall in any way, their sensors will detect us and then they'll alert the death squads that intruders are attempting to get inside the mall".

"Then what do we do? If it's that impossible to rescue the hostages, what other choice do we have but to hand over the Sacred Items?" Riviera asked with a fearful expression.

Lloyd had no clue what to do at all. Getting past an entire army of death squad troopers and fifteen imperial fighter shuttle's without being caught would be impossible, and especially dangerous. Even if the smashers used the sewer systems to sneak into the mall, the fighter shuttle's would detect them the moment they surfaced, and the hostages would be all murdered.

"I don't know, Riviera. But if we don't find a solution soon, those hostages are going to die" Lloyd replied, feeling hopeless.

"Wait a sec," Samus glanced briefly at the Arwings and then the idea popped into her head. "That's it! That might work".

"What might work, Samus?" Snake asked curiously.

"Slippy invented a portable cloaking device back when the Melee tournaments were first introduced in Smashopolis. You know, the ones we've used in previous tournaments?" Samus inquired.

"Wait, are you suggesting-?" Snake paused, realizing what Samus was planning.

"That we use cloaking devices to sneak inside the mall and free the hostages? Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting" Samus replied.

"Now that does sound a plan" Marie Rose said in agreement.

"Cloaking devices...," Lloyd pondered and then realized that this could very well work since the fighter shuttle's sensors would not be able to detect cloaked vessels or objects. "Yes, Samus does have a point there. I think we've found an answer to saving the hostages after all".

Lloyd then explained his plan on how to rescue the hostages using Slippy's portable cloaking devices to the smashers, who listened carefully. The plan was to infiltrate the mall by wearing the cloaking devices which would render them undetectable to the fighter shuttle's sensors. Once inside the mall, they would eliminate the death squad troopers holding the hostages at bay and free them before Black Shadow reinforcements arrived.

Lloyd knew that it would only be a matter of time until the _Thanatos_ caught wind of this and sent reinforcements, and if the hostages were still in the building once they arrived, the result would be an egregious massacre.

"Do you think that this plan will work?" Snake wondered.

"I can't guarantee that it will be easy, and you can bet that we're going to have to fight without showing mercy," Lloyd answered, his tone growing more serious. "I know that the idea of fighting with merciless aggression may sound hard for you, but you don't know the death squads like I do. They will show no mercy to anyone that gets in their way, not even children, and I should know because I've fought them many times before on various planets in the past while serving with the Space Marine Corps. It is not in the nature of the Black Shadow to be merciful or forgiving towards their enemies, so don't hesitate to fight back with utmost aggression and merciless tactics".

"I'm a soldier, so I know what you mean" Snake replied.

"I've hunted many alien species and pirates almost as ruthless as the Black Shadow, so I'm used to this kind of fighting" Samus added.

"Good, because I'm going to need you and Snake with me for this mission, and I'll need Wein, Charlone, Riviera, Hans, and Lip to assist me with this rescue mission" Lloyd said.

"I... I really don't want to have to kill anyone anymore. I've already done that once, and I was forced to attack a death squad trooper back inside the Smashopolis Mall after nearly being captured, and I don't want to use my magic to hurt anyone" Lip protested.

"Sorry Lip, but I need someone with healing abilities with us in case we need it. I know this is hard for you, but without you to heal us, we could end up in serious trouble" Lloyd replied, feeling sorry for her.

"I don't want to, and I won't be forced" Lip insisted firmly.

"Lip-" Lloyd started sternly, but Samus stepped in and interrupted him.

"Lloyd, she's right," she said in agreement. "We shouldn't force Lip into this if she doesn't want to go. Having to use lethal force on her enemies has been very hard for her, and we shouldn't force Lip to do it anymore".

"But then who will join us in her place?" Lloyd demanded.

"We will," Kasumi stepped forward. "You saved our lives up there in that battle saucer of yours, and so we'll gladly return the favor".

"I did?" Lloyd asked in a bemused tone, not recalling any moment of doing such a thing.

"Yes, you did," Helena answered. "Two of those fighter shuttle's had us cornered near a dead end in the road and would have killed us if you hadn't destroyed them".

Lloyd did recall destroying a lot of fighter shuttle's and severely damaging the dreadnaughts shields and super laser cannons, so it was possible that he might have saved them without knowing or remembering it.

"All right, I'm good with that," Lloyd agreed and stood up. "Then let's prepare for the mission right away".

* * *

 **A/N: That completes chapter ten. Stay tuned for the next one coming soon!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Hey everyone, I finally back after two months of writers block. Things have been very busy for me, so I've been delayed quite a bit. So without further ado, here's chapter eleven.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are all that I own.**

* * *

Chapter 11: Infiltration

Lloyd quickly checked the cloaking device strapped to his chest as he, Wein, Riviera, Charlone, Hans, Samus, Snake, Hitomi, Ayane, Lisa, Lei Fang, Tina, Helena, Kasumi, Christie, Kokoro, Rio, and Marie Rose approached the Smashopolis Mall, all wearing cloaking devices as well. Lloyd had also put on his strong space marine armor and equipped himself with an assault laser rifle, flash bombs, hand grenades, combat knives, and two advanced laser revolvers.

Samus had slipped into her power suit and Snake had also armed himself to the teeth like Lloyd. The group also wore special spy visors made and provided by Slippy which would allow them to see each other while their cloaking devices were active.

Wein had his magic power ring with him which he transformed into a golden scythe, Charlone carried magic arrows and a shiny gold bow, Hans carried his battle knives, and Riviera held a magic staff in her hand.

Up above, they could see several fighter shuttle's circling the building and making sure no one tried to get in or out. The entire parking lot was also crawling with death squad troopers who were also heavily armed and wore those frightening skull like masks over their faces. Getting past these obstacles would be impossible for anyone without a cloaking device.

"Hee hee, we're gonna sneak past them like we're not even here" Marie giggled in her cute Swedish accent.

"Don't get too carried away, Marie. This is very serious," Lloyd reminded her. "We all know the plan. We get inside while cloaked and eliminate as many death squad troopers as we can while Samus, Snake, Wein, Riviera, Hans, and Charlone help escort the hostages to safety while fighting off all enemies trying to stop us. Once we free Lucas, he'll be able to help us fight back with his PSI abilities. Now I can guarantee that once we help the hostages escape, those fighter shuttle's up there will be alerted and open fire on us, so we will really have to move post haste once they attack. Samus, Snake and I will use our long range weapons to try and take out as many of those fighter shuttles as we can. Now that we know what to do, let's go".

The entire group activated their cloaking devices and then headed out of the bushes and onto the enormous parking lot which was brightly lit by the metal lamp posts between various rows of parked cars. Marie, being the giddy eighteen year old teen that she was, couldn't help but get slightly carried away with the fact that she was invisible and began tapping various parked cars that she passed, unaware that there were three death squad troopers standing under a lamp post nearby.

"Hey, what are you doing? Stop that!" Wein snapped as quietly as he could.

"Marie, quit that! Those thugs are going to get suspicious" Helena scolded quietly.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it," Marie apologized with a cute giggle. "Being invisible is so fun".

One of the thugs glanced at one of the cars that Marie had tapped and a confused expression came over his face behind his skull mask.

"Hey, who's there?" the thug called out, raising his weapon at the car.

"Is someone over there?" Another trooper asked.

The thug walked over to the car and looked all around it, hoping to find some meddling scum bag hiding behind or under it, but found nothing.

"There's nothing here, I must be hearing things" the thug muttered, heading back over to his post.

Helena scolded Marie again, a bit more harshly, and told her to knock it off. Marie had noticed the thugs getting suspicious and thought that it was best to keep quiet now. But as the group got closer to the malls main entrance, Marie accidentally bumped against a red Toyota Corolla and then it's horn blared with a long and loud "BEEEEEEEEEP... BEEEEEEEEEP" and it's front and back lights blinked with each long honk.

The cars owner had apparently had an alarm system installed in it and Marie had set it off when she bumped into it. Any death squad troopers within range of the car immediately turned their attention towards it as its alarm sounded and raised their weapons at it.

"Marie, you fool!" Ayane snapped.

"Nice going, Marie! You going to get us caught!" Charlone glared at Marie.

"That wasn't intentional, I swear" Marie protested.

"Hey, what's going on over there?" A death squad trooper yelled, rushing over to the car as its alarm continued going off.

"That stupid goth girl's gonna get us all killed!" Snake growled.

"Stop arguing and just run before they get even more suspicious!" Lloyd snapped firmly and took off running towards the mall entrance.

The rest of the group followed him quickly as they heard the car alarm suddenly stop after thirty seconds had passed. The thugs near the car checked all around it for anything suspicious as to what might have caused the alarm to go off, but didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

"No one's here," the thug informed the others. "The dumb thing must have short circuited or something".

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, Lloyd and the rest of the group made it into the enormous building and stopped to catch their breath. Outside in the distance, they heard the car alarm going off again, but then one of the thugs near the car blasted it with his weapon, silencing it for good.

"God damn it, Marie! What the fuck is the matter with you?! Are you trying to get us caught?" Lloyd demanded angrily, glaring at her.

"Yeah, you almost got us caught!" Hans snapped, glaring at Marie.

"I... I'm sorry! I didn't mean to set it off, I swear..." Marie insisted.

"Marie, just because we're using cloaking devices doesn't mean we won't be found," Lloyd lectured. "If we come across other death squad troopers in here, which we will, we need to stay as quiet as we can and move slowly. Even while invisible, there's always a chance that they could catch us if we make too much noise. The death squads may not know that it's us, but they _will_ know that something is wrong and possibly shoot at us, so for all our sakes, keep quiet!".

Marie nodded nervously and the group set out towards the center of the mall which spilt into three other directions. Most of the stores had either been sealed shut by the metal gates used during closing time, or had been ransacked by the death squads. Lloyd noticed a lot of charred holes in the floor, walls, and other objects that had resulted from laser fire, but that wasn't the worst of it.

"No!" Riviera gasped in shock at what she saw.

"Good God!" Snake exclaimed in horror at the carnage in front of him.

There were dead corpses laying everywhere; some in the stores, out in the mall, and against the walls with laser blasts all over them. Some of the corpses had bloody, grisly stab wounds on them. What was even more disturbing was that some of the corpses were children, and even infants, which shocked Lloyd and the entire group.

"No, what have they done?!" Wein exclaimed in absolute terror.

"Those bastards," Lloyd hissed with rage boiling inside him. "They're going to pay dearly for this!".

He held his laser rifle at the ready as the group followed him down the left path of the mall where they could all hear voices coming from somewhere in their current direction. More corpses lay across the floor and against the walls, all in a pool of their own blood from fatal laser and stab wounds. The voices grew louder as Lloyd and his group headed further into the mall, finding more split directions and five death squad troopers in each of them.

"Man, I'm bored shitless. My stomach is growling too" a fat trooper complained on their left.

"Stop complaining, you fat fuck. You know what the big bosses orders are, so keep your damn eyes open for any intruders" a bulky trooper snapped.

"What's the matter? You got a powerhouse round of diarrhea or something?" a third trooper joked and the other troopers began laughing.

"Powerhouse round of diarrhea my ass! Come over here and I'll show you my version of diarrhea!" The fat trooper snapped angrily with embarrassment.

"Enough with all this diarrhea talk and get back to your patrols, you stupid fucks" the bulky trooper ordered firmly.

Marie did her best to try and hold back a huge laugh and almost couldn't help it, but Lloyd ordered the group to head right as the troopers continued laughing. He cared nothing about those thugs humour, and Lloyd did not feel very obliged by his team being humored by them since they were cold blooded murderers.

"Stay focused on the mission," Lloyd whispered sternly. "Ignore them and their filthy humour and keep moving. This is no time to be laughing".

...

...

"They still haven't responded to our demands" one of the troopers reported to Vasquez, who glared at him.

"Patience! They still have ten minutes left, so keep your eyes on the hostages" Vasquez snapped sternly.

Lucas had recovered most of his PSI energy by this time, but was too afraid to attack. He was outnumbered and would only end up getting shot or hurting the other hostages.

"Mommy, I wanna go home" Tracy whimpered, staying close to her mother.

"Hey, who the fuck said you could speak?! Shut your fucking trap, bitch!" A fat death squad trooper snapped, glaring at Tracy.

"She's only a child. She's frightened" her mother replied.

"What part of shut the fuck up don't you understand?! One more sound out of you, and you both die on the spot!" The thug snarled in a threatening tone, raising his weapon on the two of them.

Lucas noticed the two of them being harassed by the evil thug and recognized them as Ness's mother and sister. He grew angry and the sight of them being threatened and almost couldn't help wanting to help them, but Lucas knew that'd be a death sentence since he was outnumbered and outgunned.

"Leave them alone, you shit eating, cunt mouthed butthole!" A punk teen snapped at the thug.

This remark enraged the thug who turned around, glaring furiously at the teen.

"What the _fuck_ did you just call _me_?!" The trooper hissed furiously, raising his laser gun at him and charging it.

"Stay your weapon, soldier! I want them alive" Vasquez ordered firmly.

"Did you just hear what that punk called me?!" The trooper complained.

"I'm perfectly aware of what he said, and you are not to question my orders, got that?" Vasquez snapped coldly.

"Y-yes! Wholeheartedly" the trooper acknowledged nervously, not wanting to get on Vasquez's bad side.

"And you...," Vasquez grabbed the punk teen boy and pressed his hideous looking assault laser gun to his head. "Unless you've got a death wish, you and the rest of the hostages had better shut the fuck up!".

"Okay, okay! I got it! Just leave me alone!" The frightened teen pleaded.

Vasquez then shoved him back roughly and returned to the center of the crowded hostages, unaware that Lloyd and his friends were headed right towards his death squad and the hostages. Their cloaking devices were still on, so Vasquez and his thugs couldn't see them, but he could hear their footsteps.

Lloyd snuck up behind a death squad trooper near Lucas, grabbed him from behind, and drove his combat knife into the back of his head which killed him instantly. The others troopers and the hostages quickly turned their attention to the fallen trooper, wondering what had just happened.

"What the hell just happened?! Who did this?!" Vasquez demanded, just as an invisible Wein drove his scythe blade into his chest and pierced his heart, spraying blood everywhere and killing him.

The hostages cried out in horror and confusion with terrifed expressions, looking just as shocked as the other troopers, who raised their weapons and scanned the area for the attackers. But before they could even attempt to fire their weapons, the invisible DOA girls, Lloyd, Samus, Snake, Wein, Riviera, Charlone, and Hans quickly attacked the troopers using their own weapons and abilities.

Samus used her power suits laser cannon to vaporize any trooper in her path, Snake fired his machine gun at them, Lloyd used his combat knife and laser rifle on the thugs, Wein used his scythe, Charlone fired magic arrows from her bow and struck many of the troopers, Hans threw his knives at the throats of several troopers in front of him, Riviera cast lightning from her magic staff at the thugs, and the DOA girls used their fighting skills to take them out.

The hostages were too stunned and surprised to run away, even Lucas. They did not expect something like this to happen. Some of them thought that it was a ghost, but Lucas had a pretty good idea of who it was after recalling the cloaking devices used in the smash tournaments.

Within the next few minutes, all the death squad troopers were dead. Lloyd and his team deactivated their cloaking devices and revealed themselves to the hostages, who cheered as soon as they realized they were free.

"Lloyd, guys! Am I glad to see you!" Lucas said joyfully, rushing up to Lloyd.

"Lucas, you all right?" Samus asked him in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. No one got hurt" Lucas informed.

"All right then," Lloyd turned to Samus and Snake. "We need to get these people out of the building. Remember, the fighter shuttle's and other death squad troopers out there have most likely already found out that we've been here, so we'll need to be prepared to fight again once we reach the mall exit".

"But how do we take down the Black Shadow fighters? They're up in the air and we can't reach them" Kasumi asked curiously.

Lloyd was about to answer when the roof window shattered and then Ness, Lucario, and Robot Chicken hovered down to the ground.

"We'll help with that," Lucario replied. "Ness informed me about what was going on here and so I came to help save the hostages. Me and Robot Chicken will take on the fighter shuttle's and enemy troops in the parking lot outside and this should give you all a better chance of escaping".

As Lloyd and Lucario went over the new escape plan, Ness rushed over to his mother and sister who looked very relieved to see her son unharmed. The DOA girls tended to the other people among them while Samus and Snake assisted the elderly ones.

"Big brother, your safe" Tracy exclaimed in relief.

"Oh Ness, thank the Lord your all right," Ness's mother embraced her son. "How did you ever get past those horrible men?".

Ness looked over at Lucas who nodded and said, "I stayed behind to fight off a team of death squad troopers while Ness escaped inside an air shaft vent. If it hadn't been for me, he'd have probably been caught too".

"He's right, mom. Lucas saved my life back there, and I almost lost it when I saw him being held hostage with you and the others down here" Ness confirmed, glancing thankfully at Lucas.

"Lucas, that was so brave of you. You really are a true friend" Ness's mother commented.

"He's more than that; he's like second a brother to me, and I don't know how I'd go on without him" Lucas replied, briefly remembering his deceased brother Claus.

Lucas had already lost two members of his family, and the thought of losing his best friend to that evil organization was very frightening.

"Lloyd, we'd better get out of here before the Black Shadow gets suspicious and sends backup. They're probably already aware that we're here since our cloaking devices are off, so we should get moving" Snake advised.

"And there's no way those fighter shuttle's wouldn't have noticed Ness, Lucario, and Robot Chicken on the roof" Samus added, looking up at the shattered roof window.

"I know, so we'd better get moving and find a safe place for these people for the time being," Lloyd looked over at Charlone, Hans, Riviera, and Wein. "You four follow behind us and help protect the people as I lead us out of here. Lucario says that there's an abandoned subway tunnel just three blocks from here where they'll be safe from detection, now let's go".

...

...

"Captain Regina, I'm detecting several new signatures from inside the mall below, and they're not Black Shadow signatures" one of the officers on the bridge of the _Thanatos_ replied at his post.

"That can't be possible; every part of that mall is under our watch. If someone other than us tried to get inside there, we'd detect them" Regina protested in confusion.

"Well, they're there now, and they're not just the hostages. There are eighteen other new signatures down there, and they're not glitches" the officer replied.

"Captain, we just got a report from one of our fighter shuttle's," another officer reported from his console. "They say that they saw a blue fox like creature and a cybernetic chicken fly up to the top of the mall and shatter the roof window. I think they must have done something to our men in there, because they also said the hostages are emerging from inside the building and...".

The officer paused for a moment as a new report came in from the fighter shuttle's which made Regina briefly impatient.

"Well, what is it? What's going on?" She demanded impatiently.

"Captain... it's Lloyd Florence, and he's got friends with him as well" the officer replied in a nervous tone of voice.

Regina was absolutely shocked when she heard him say that. How could that meddlesome brat have gotten past the guard troopers and the fighter shuttle's sensors?

"What?! That's impossible! There's no way anyone could have gotten past all the guards and patrolling fighter shuttle's. They'd have detected any intruders that approached the building" Regina protested in disbelief.

"There's no error, the shuttle pilot also said there are eighteen others with Lloyd, and they're leading the hostages out of the building. I've got a visual" the officer informed.

The bridge viewscreen switched to a sky view of the malls entrance where Regina saw Lloyd, the smashers, and all the hostages running out of the building.

"Commander Yeager, order all fighter shuttle's to intercept and eliminate them, but leave Lloyd alive. I want more death squads down there to catch him," Regina ordered firmly. "He's not getting away this time".

...

...

"Lloyd, we've got company!" Lucas pointed up at the fighter shuttle's turning their attention at him and the others.

Lloyd looked up and saw the fighter shuttle's dropping out more paratroopers from the bottom of them, then the shuttle's prepared to open fire on them.

"Shit! They're sending out more death squad troopers," Lloyd turned to Samus. "You and Snake get the people out of here and into the abandoned subway tunnels while I stay here with Lucario and the others and fight these troopers off".

Samus and Snake quickly took off and began leading the freed hostages towards the forest area while Lloyd stayed behind and began attacking the oncoming death squad troopers headed towards him. Lucario quickly blasted several fighter shuttle's out of the sky with his charge beam attack, Lucas and Ness used their PSI to fight back, Wein, Rivera, Hans, and Charlone used their own weapons and abilities to attack the troopers, and the DOA girls fought in hand to hand combat.

Robot Chicken flew onto one of the fighter shuttle's, ripped open the top with cybernetically enhanced strength, and then jumped inside it. The two surprised pilots turned around to face the robotic fowl just as he blasted them both with his laser cannon. Robot Chicken then shoved the main pilots body aside and took control of the shuttle. Once he began firing at the other fighter shuttle's, they turned their attention away from the hostages fleeing into the forest.

" _What the hell do you think your doing, you dumb fucks?! We're on your side!"_ one of the other fighter shuttle pilots yelled angrily over the com system.

"Bok bok bok!" Robot Chicken clucked loudly, firing the shuttle's laser cannons at one of the other shuttle's and destroying it in three hits.

Down on the ground, Lloyd and the others noticed this and paused in confusion. Some of the death squad troopers also glanced up at the commotion going on above them.

"That's odd," Riviera said in confusion. "Why is that shuttle attacking the other ones?".

"No idea," Wein replied. "Maybe it's having problems with its targeting system or something".

As it turned out, none of them had noticed Robot Chicken when he had climbed into the fighter shuttle and took control of it, so they assumed that one of the pilots inside it turned traitor and started attacking their own comrades. Lloyd wasn't sure what exactly was going on inside that shuttle either, but he knew that it wasn't in the nature of the Black Shadow to question their loyalty to General Ridley so easily.

"Hey wait, I think I see something in there" Marie pointed at the rouge fighter shuttle.

"Hey, if didn't know any better, I'd say that looks like Robot Chicken" Lucas pointed at the front window on the fighter shuttle, and for a brief second, he saw Robot Chicken's head in the window. "It _is_ Robot Chicken! He's piloting the shuttle".

Inside the fighter shuttle, Robot Chicken dodged the blasts as the other fighter shuttle's fired at him. Angry shuts from the other fighter shuttle pilots erupted through the com system of the captured fighter shuttle and all the other fighter shuttle's to stop the rouge fighter shuttle.

 _"All fighter pilots, focus your aim on that rouge fighter shuttle and destroy it"_ one of the pilots commanded.

"Bok bok bok! (If your gonna destroy me, you'll have to catch me first!)" Robot Chicken clucked defiantly over the com system and then sped off towards Regina's ship up in the sky.

The other fighter shuttle's immediately chased after Robot Chicken as he zoomed towards the _Thanatos_ and took out all other fighter shuttle's trying to stop him. Robot Chicken took a few hits, but the shields held at 85% as he fought on. It took a few hits to destroy the other shuttle's because of their shields, but Robot Chicken easily took them out without a sweat.

On the massive dreadnaught, Regina got several reports from the lead fighter shuttle, piloted by Faust, that one of their other shuttle's had been captured by a cybernetic chicken who was currently using it to attack and destroy their other shuttle's. Regina saw the captured shuttle headed towards her vessel on the main bridge viewscreen, infuriating her.

"All battle stations, target the rouge fighter shuttle headed towards us and destroy it! I repeat, stop that fighter!" Regina boomed over the ship's intercom.

Immediately, all of the dreadnaughts large port turrets aimed for Robot Chicken and opened fire on him. Clucking angrily, Robot Chicken flew up to the side of the enormous ship and fired multiple plasma torpedoes at the turrets, but caused very little damage to them since the ship's shields were much stronger and more powerful than the shields of a fighter shuttle.

Down below, most of the other fighter shuttle's had retreated from the parking lot and joined their other comrades to try and stop Robot Chicken, and some others stayed behind to search for the escaped hostages that had fled into the forest with Samus and Snake. The death squad troopers continued their assault on Lloyd and the smashers, but their numbers slowly diminished as Lucario blasted them with his Hyper Beam attack.

Lloyd and his allies seemed to be winning, but then the _Thanatos_ sent out more reinforcements to take them out. There were now over fifty fighter shuttle's headed straight for them. The heroes had already eliminated almost all of the death squad troopers on the ground, forcing the remaining troops to retreat and leaving Lloyd and his friends exhausted.

"Oh no, they're sending out more fighters! What'll we do?" Lucas panicked.

"I can't hold them off much longer. My psychic energy is getting low" Lucario informed, exhausted from using so many hyper beam attacks.

"My PSI is started to get weak as well. I can't keep using it for too much longer" Ness said, feeling his PSI energy getting low.

"We'd better fall back and rejoin Samus and Snake. We've got to make sure that those people escape safely" Lloyd replied, just as three purple balls of cosmic energy zoomed through the sky and blasted several fighter shuttle's to pieces.

"Look!" Charlone pointed up at the source of the shots.

Lloyd and the others looked up and saw the blue ultraship soaring onto the scene, firing solar plasma orbs at the fighter shuttle's. The other Black Shadow fighters began firing at the ship, but the battle saucers shields were far too strong for them to inflict damage on it.

 _"Yo' Ness, am I late for the party?"_ a boy's voice asked Ness telepathically, and he immediately recognized who's voice it was.

"Jeff! Is that you?" Ness execlaimed.

 _"Who else would I be? Of course it's me,"_ Jeff replied with a sarcastic laugh. _"Poo and Paula are with me as well. We came here awhile ago after Master Hand told us what was going on in Smashopolis, and so we agreed to help in anyway we can. Paula sensed you and Lucas in danger, so we're here to help"._

"Well then, your just in time, because we need all the help we can get," Ness replied. "Can you fly the ultraship with no problem?".

 _"Don't worry, piloting this ship is pretty easy and almost no different than the Skyrunner ship back at my place, and much cooler. I'll take out as many fighters as I can while you guys on the ground handle those Black Shadow troops"_ Jeff assured his friend.

"You got it, Jeff" Ness nodded.

"Ness, who were you speaking to just now?" Lloyd asked him.

"Its my friend, Jeff Andonouts. He's a prodigy and can speak telepathically like me and Lucas. He says he'll take out the fighter shuttle's so that we can deal with the troopers on the ground here" Ness explained.

"All right then, that's excellent" Lloyd said just as several troopers fired at him.

The blue battle saucer soared towards the fleet of fighters, blasting each and every one of them in sight. Robot Chicken soon joined up with Jeff to help eliminate the remaining fighter shuttle's, which now numbered to about seventy.

"Wow, this ship's powerful," Paula exclaimed as she watched each enemy fighter explode in just one hit from the ultraships solar plasma blasts. "Even Skyrunner didn't have this kind of defense".

"I've gotta get myself one of these" Jeff said in excitement as he fired several energy seeking missiles at the dreadnaughts super laser cannons, destroying them.

He then targeted several more fighter shuttle's firing at him and eliminated them in a single hit. The ship's shields held against enemy fire quite well and its weapons were more than a match for those fighter shuttle's, but Jeff, Paula, and Poo were still greatly outnumbered and couldn't defeat all of them alone.

"We're not going to hold out forever; there's too many fighters out there, and that dreadnaught is far too big and powerful to destroy with just one ship" Poo informed.

"I know, but I want to try and do as much damage to it as I can" Jeff replied, destroying more fighter shuttle's.

He began targeting the dreadnaught using the cosmic energy weapon, firing multiple shots at every part of its armored hull which penetrated the shields and struck the hulls surface which did a ton of damage. Jeff headed for the ship's rear and targeted its impulse engines, severely damaging them with energy seeking missiles.

...

...

"Captain, we just lost our primary impulse engines, and several of our port turrets and laser cannons are down as well" Commander Yeager reported as alarms went off all over the bridge.

"How the hell is that blasted saucer able to penetrate our shields?! They're at full power" Regina demanded as the _Thanatos_ shook from weapons fire.

"I don't know, Captain. But their weapons appear to be operating with unknown frequencies, and our shields can't hold against them. We should retreat before anymore damage is taken to our ship" Yeager replied.

"Not yet! Order all remaining fighter shuttle's to target that saucer and destroy it, now!" Regina commanded.

...

...

" _Warning, new enemy fleet approaching"_ the ultraship's computer warned.

"There's more fighter shuttle's coming," Jeff noted, seeing multiple red dots appear on the scanner. "And there's a lot of them too".

"Then let's take them out and continue our attack on that dreadnaught" Poo suggested.

"I don't know if we can take on this many fighter shuttle's alone. There's over 400 of them showing up on the scanner, and the shields are down to 60%. If we keep going like this, the ship could end up seriously damaged, maybe even destroyed. We're going to need help" Jeff replied, struggling to destroy every enemy fighter in sight.

The shields held, but began to fall as the ultraship took dozens of hits from the enemy fighters. Jeff destroyed a lot of them, but he and his other two friends were still heavily outnumbered, and the shields began to lose strength as the ship took damage.

"The primary shields are down to 30%, Jeff. We can't take much more of this" Paula informed worriedly.

"The secondary shields are still online, so we should be fine for now" Jeff answered, firing a widespread volley of cosmic energy orbs at the enemy fighters in front of him.

Just then, a yellow dot appeared on the scanner, then the computer said, _"Un_ _known vessel approaching"._

Jeff and his friends tensed up with fear, not knowing weather or not the new ship approaching was friendly or hostile. However, the vessel soon came into view and they immediately recognized it as the Halbard, Metaknight's airship. It unleashed a powerful shockwave laser blast from its mega laser cannons which destroyed a very large number of fighter shuttle's, leaving only about eighty-four left.

 _"Sorry I was so late, the Transwarp Gate was down for several hours until awhile ago, so I'm here to help"_ Metaknight announced over the com system.

"Metaknight! It's about time. I was wondering when help would show up, cause we really need help" Jeff said in relief.

 _"Well then, let's get to work"_ Metaknight replied.

The Halbard charged its mega cannons and fired at the _Thanatos_ and the remaining fighter shuttle's that had turned their attention towards Metaknight. The shields on the dreadnaught held well against the massive cannon blasts, but Jeff was able to penetrate them using the ultraship's far advanced weaponry, unwilling striking the shield generators as the cosmic energy orbs pierced the triple armor plated hull and into the auxiliary engineering deck.

"Metaknight, the shields are down! Give that ship hell!" Jeff cried out.

 _"Roger that"_ Metaknight responded and then he immediately began battering the dreadnaught with everything his ship had.

And as if luck couldn't get any better, the Raiden fighters and the Star Fox team arrived to assist them. With the shields down, they began striking at every possible area of the massive dreadnaught, causing heavy damage on the spot with every hit.

But despite having fifty Raiden fighters, the Star Fox team, and the Halbard at Jeff's side, it would not be enough to destroy a dreadnaught the size of a city. They weren't doing enough damage to actually destroy it.

"Poo, what's the status of that dreadnaught?" Jeff asked.

"It's sustained extreme damage to its hull, primary engines, and weapon systems. But it's secondary weapon systems and engines are still up. There's no way we'll be able to destroy it, even with the entire Smashopolis defense force combined" Poo reported.

Just then, the dreadnaught stopped firing its weapons, then the com system on the ultraship buzzed and then Paula said, "Jeff, the captain of the dreadnaught is hailing us; audio only".

"Patch us through" Jeff said, bringing the battle saucer to a stop in midair, hovering and rotating slowly.

Paula opened the channel to the dreadnaught and then Captain Regina's enraged voice boomed over the bridge of the ultraship.

 _"This is Captain Regina of the dreadnaught Thanatos, and I demand that you seize your attack on my vessel at once!"_ Regina raged over the com.

"This is Jeff Andonouts commanding the ultraship _Anastasia,_ and I shall do no such thing unless you agree to cease your attack on Smashopolis and the innocent lives within it" Jeff replied defiantly.

 _"The attack shall stop when you hand over Lloyd Florence and the Sacred Items to me! You can't hope to destroy my ship with that feeble fleet of yours!"_ Regina yelled angrily.

"You'd be unwise to continue as you are now. Your ship has been severely damaged, you've run nearly out of fighter shuttle's, and my ship has disabled your shields. Granted, it will take a much bigger fleet to destroy your ship, but I assure you, we'll never give up fighting for our freedom. We'll continue to batter your ship until our own ships power cells go dry if that's what it takes to make you understand that we'll never give into your demands" Jeff advised Regina in a warning tone.

Regina was silent for a moment before speaking up again.

 _"Don't flatter me, you fucking brat! I will never surrender to the likes of you!"_ Regina hissed furiously.

"Then I'm afraid that decision of yours will mean your downfall," Jeff said, tapping a few buttons on the control panel in front of him. "I'll have you know that this battle saucer has been equipped with nuclear warheads, and I'm not afraid to use them if it comes to that".

 _"What?! You wouldn't dare!"_ Regina snarled, trying to hide the fear in her tone, but Jeff noticed it.

"Oh, I do, so check your sensors if you don't believe me" Jeff challenged coldly, priming the energy seeking missile launchers, now loaded with tactical nuclear missiles.

"Jeff, are you out of your mind?! Your seriously gonna use nukes on that dreadnaught just above the city?!" Paula gasped in utter dread.

"I know what I'm doing, so don't panic yet" Jeff assured her.

...

...

"Captain, he's not bluffing," Commander Yeager replied, checking his console. "That saucers locked weapons onto us, and they read out as nuclear weapons".

Regina stared coldly at the ultraship hovering on the viewscreen, not knowing weather or not to act. If this person in the blue ship truly intended to fire nukes at her ship, it would surely be destroyed since the shields were offline, and even a hull made of triple plated armor wouldn't stand a chance against nuclear weapons.

"What do want us to do?" Yeager asked frantically.

"Order all remaining fighter shuttle's to return to the hanger deck and prepare to retreat," Regina snapped in defeat, turning back to the com speaker on her command chair. "This isn't over, you damned brat! We'll be back, and you'll all pay for this!".

...

...

 _"Weapons systems powering down"_ the ultraship's computer said as Jeff powered down the weapons and shields.

"We did it! They're retreating!" Paula cheered as she saw a few remaining fighter shuttle's flying back into the _Thanatos_ and then watched it slowly move forward towards the night sky.

"Looks like we've won, for now" Poo said as he watched the dreadnaught moving further and further away.

...

...

Down in the abandoned subway tunnel, all the citizens of Smashopolis were being tended to by the smashers and the military when multiple footsteps were suddenly heard from the distance. The tunnel was dimly lit by a few military LED lamps, so no one was able to see who was headed towards them.

"What's that? Someone's coming" Rosalina pointed out.

"Sounds like those death squads" Captain Falcon guessed.

Several soldiers raised their weapons, preparing to fire, but stopped when they saw who it was. Lloyd and the other smashers had made it into the tunnel with the rescued citizens.

"Lloyd, it's you!" Pit exclaimed in relief to see Lloyd and the others unharmed.

"Ness, Lucas! Your all here" Sonic added, rushing up to them.

Once Lloyd got close enough to the light, everyone saw that he was covered in blood and holding a combat knife in his hand. He also looked exhausted from fighting off all the death squad troopers, but also angry.

"Jeez Lloyd, you step in a mine field?" Bowser joked.

"My laser weapons ran low on power, so I had to fight with my long combat knives. Those bastards followed us into the forest as we retreated, but I killed them all," Lloyd said, panting as he sat down. "I'm sick of them doing shit like this to innocent lives in this city, so I gave them what they deserved".

"Hey man, you all right? You sound mad about something" Roy asked Lloyd in concern.

"Its nothing! I'm just tired, that's all" Lloyd snapped firmly.

The DOA girls were quite exhausted from fighting as well. A few of them received a few bruises and cut wounds, but nothing too serious. Lucario, Ness, and Lucas were completely tired out from using so much PSI energy, so they had sat near the tunnel wall to rest up. Several military medical officers tended to the wounds on the DOA girls and examined the citizens who had been held hostage at the mall.

"Hey Lloyd, thanks for coming to save us. If it hadn't been for you, me and the others might have been dead by now" Lucas thank Lloyd as he sat near the tunnel wall alone.

"Yeah, I'm glad you and the others are safe. I just hope Metaknight and the others out there are all right" Lloyd said, glancing into the dark tunnel to his right.

Just then, he heard several military officers cheering for joy as they received an update from the ground forces about. From what Lloyd overheard, a high ranking officer said that the remaining fighter shuttle's and the _Thanatos_ had retreated back into space after being badly battered by Jeff, Metaknight's airship, the Star Fox team, and the entire Smashopolis defense force; the fighting had ended, for now.

* * *

 **A/N: Well now, looks like the fight against the Black Shadow has ended for now. But for how long? You'll find out soon enough later on...**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: To all my fans and SSBB fans, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting on this story. Life's been busy and stressful, so I've had a lot of writers block on this story, but I've finally got this chapter done and up after three months of waiting. I hope you enjoy this story and comment as much as you can on it.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are all that I own.**

* * *

Chapter 12: Transwarp Dilemma

Five days had passed since the defeat of Captain Regina and the city of Smashopolis was still recovering from the Black Shadow invasion. Because of this, the Smash Bros tournament was postponed until further notice by order of Master Hand. Thousands of lives had been lost to the Black Shadow death squads, which included military officers, soldiers, men, women, and even children.

The guest smashers had returned to their own realms for the time being since the tournament had been postponed, so there was a lot of disappointment in Smash Mansion. Lloyd's own starship was still out of commission due to not having enough credits to repair it, and the Ultraship had been returned to the Dry Dock to undergo repairs after its big battle against the _Thanatos_.

Since Lloyd had no other plans in mind, he decided to head out to Smashopolis Park to clear his mind of all these horrible events that transpired. He was still filled with deep regret and sorrow over the deaths of all the innocents in the city that fell victim to the Black Shadow organization, wondering what he could of done to prevent it.

A memorial was held two days ago to honor all the soldiers who died trying to protect Smashopolis, and to mourn the loss of the many thousands of innocent people who had been killed in the attack as well. The tournament would not be held for over three weeks because of this.

Lloyd felt that the invasion was mostly his fault since his presence in Smashopolis had brought the Black Shadow there, yet it wasn't entirely true. Lloyd knew from everything that had happened that the Black Shadow must have been planning the invasion for quite some time, so it might have happened one way or the other. He was at least very thankful that Captain Regina hadn't been able to capture the Transwarp Gate or the Sacred Items.

There was no telling what horrible things might have happened if they had managed to steal them. The thought of the Transwarp Gate and the two Sacred Items falling into the hands of a very dangerous organization was beyond frightening. But Lloyd knew that the Black Shadow wouldn't give up so easily. Beating the dreadnaught and its fighters were only the beginning, and that meant that the Black Shadow would probably form another battle plan and send other ship to finish what Captain Regina started.

The city had taken quite a bit of damage from the assault, but Lloyd had a feeling that it would be worse the next time the Black Shadow sent another ship to complete their mission. Lloyd didn't know what type of vessel they would send next, but he hoped to God it wouldn't be another dreadnaught. Those massive ships were extremely powerful, and Lloyd knew for sure that Smashopolis wouldn't survive another attack from one of them.

The defense force had lost an estimate of over thirty-five thousand raiden fighters along with their pilots. Fifteen thousand marine corps soldiers had also perished in combat, and over at least one hundred thousand innocent civilians had also been killed in the attacks. It had been a miracle that the _Thanatos_ was able to be crippled enough to force it into retreat, and Smashopolis was not even close to a full recovery from the battle.

If the Black Shadow sent another dreadnaught down to Earth to attack Smashopolis again, there'd be no way that the city would survive another invasion. The defense force had been greatly crippled by the last invasion and had lost too many fighters to take on another enemy vessel with such immense power and size.

"Squirtle!" A voice squawked.

Lloyd looked behind him to see Pokemon Trainer Red's water pokemon Squirtle swimming in the large park fountain behind the bench he was sitting in. Squirtle then popped his head up and squirted Lloyd in the back, wetting his blue T-shirt a bit.

"Come on, will you cut it out? Your getting my shirt wet" Lloyd said in an annoyed tone.

"Hey, Squirtle! Come back here" Red called out from under a nearby tree.

The blue turtle pokemon jumped out of the fountain and rushed over to his trainer, shaking the water off his shell. Red then returned Squirtle to his poke ball and came up to Lloyd with Pikachu following him.

"Sorry about that," Red apologized. "Squirtle was only playing around. He does that a lot when he's in a good mood".

"Its all right, it's just water" Lloyd said, ringing out the water on his shirt.

"So what brings you out here?" Red asked curiously.

"Just clearing my mind," Lloyd said, gazing at the fountain. "All this war and combat, it's really taking a toll on me. I need to get it out of my mind before it gets to be too much".

"Your still torn up about what happened here, aren't you?" Red concluded.

"Of course I am," Lloyd replied, almost snapping. "Thousands of innocent people were murdered by the Black Shadow organization, and I couldn't do anything to save them".

"You did what you could, and you really did help us to fight them," Red replied. "Had you not been here, we wouldn't have had a fighting strategy for facing the Black Shadow and a lot more lives might have been lost".

"Pika, Pi" Pikachu said with a nod.

Lloyd knew without a doubt that Red was right. Since Lloyd knew a lot more about the Black Shadow organization and their strategies, he had been able to provide Smashopolis with a strategy for its citizens to stand against them and defend themselves, even at the cost of many innocent lives.

If Lloyd hadn't been in Smashopolis at the time of the invasion, the people would have never stood a chance against the Black Shadow, and the sacred items and possibly the Transwarp Gate would most likely have ended in the hands of General Ridley. But with Lloyd there to lead them to victory, the Black Shadow was forced to retreat and recover from battle, but at a horrible cost; thousands of innocent civilians and soldiers lost their lives because of the Black Shadow.

Yet Lloyd was grateful that he was able to eliminate most of the death squads and force Captain Regina to retreat back into space, but he knew that didn't mean the victory would last forever. Ridley would definitely send in reinforcements eventually, and Lloyd would ensure that Smashopolis won another victory.

"Yeah, I guess your right. I may not have been able to save everyone, but I at least was able to help Smashopolis fight back, and I'm grateful that I could help" Lloyd nodded, standing up.

"So am I," Red replied. "As are the rest of us".

"You know, since my ship is still down, I thought about maybe visiting one of the other realms using the Transwarp Gate while I'm here. I've wanted to see what they're like" Lloyd said, gazing at the large Transwarp Gate antenna tower near the center of the city.

"Which one did you have in mind?" Red wondered.

"I thought about maybe seeing Link's world called Hyrule, but after seeing a few pokemon hanging out here, I thought about visiting your realm" Lloyd replied.

"Oh, you mean the Kanto Region?" Red asked, his interest perked.

"Yeah, and since you know a lot about it, you could show me around there" Lloyd nodded.

"All right then, let's go" Red lead the way.

"Pika!" Pikachu said happily.

...

...

Regina glared furiously at the wall of her prison cell aboard the _Death's Head,_ filled with rage and pain over the fate that had befallen her for the price of her failure. Right after Regina and her crew had retreated and returned with the rest of the Black Shadow fleet, General Ridley was informed by her that their mission was a failure and that the _Thanatos_ was too damaged to continue.

When Ridley learned of everything that had happened down on Smashopolis, he flew into rage and cursed Regina for her "cowardly" retreat and failure, then declared her to be severely punished for her actions that caused her to fail her mission. Ridley ordered the complete execution of Regina's entire crew, and then had her stripped naked and brutally, savagely, and animalistically tortured with the use of razor wired whips, a vaginal shredder, and an electric spiked club.

Regina's vagina had been shredded beyond recognition, and she had been covered in pus covered cuts, bruises, and burned slashes from the electrified clubs that beat her. She was still naked while in her cell, and was in so much pain from her wounds that she could barely move. Heavily armed guards also stood outside Regina's cell to ensure she wouldn't commit suicide since Ridley had made it clear that killing herself meant that she wouldn't be learning her lesson on how much "pain" she had caused him for failing her mission.

Regina was warned that if she attempted suicide, she'd be executed in the slowest and most painful way ever known to man kind. Her ship was still being repaired by Ridley's crew and would now be placed under Faust's command with the help of 200 crew members from both the _Death's Head_ and the _Fearling,_ a battleship used for defense missions.

Just then, Regina heard the doors of the prison bay open and the guards immediately saluted. Her heart skipped a beat in fear when she saw General Ridley approach her cell, his cybernetic eyes glaring angrily at her.

"Not enjoying this, aren't you?" Ridley said coldly.

Regina said nothing as she glared down at him with eyes full of hate and rage. Her crew was dead, and she had been deprived of her very dignity by this evil cyborg. Regina felt fully inclined to kill Ridley if she had her weapons, but that would be an automatic death sentence if she did.

"I asked you a question! I expect an answer, you damn bitch!" Ridley suddenly shouted, kicking the cell doors.

"F-Fuck you!" Regina stammered.

This was a bad move as it made Ridley very angry. He grabbed the bars of her cell and ripped them clean out of the metal hinges, then stomped up to Regina and pulled her up by the hair.

"You, you useless bitch, have just signed your death warrant," Ridley hissed, throwing her against the wall with so much force that it shattered several bones in Regina's body. "Your failure has cost the organization far more than it should have, and your going to pay for it with your life!".

Because Ridley was a cyborg, his physical strength was far stronger and more powerful than the average human. He was capable of lifting objects twice his size such as a fighter shuttle, and he could crush a human or animal with his metal hands without difficulty.

"Guards," Ridley barked, storming out of the cell. "Take her to the execution chamber and hook her up to the blood evaporators, and make sure you inject her with enough adrenaline so that she doesn't pass out from the extreme agony. I want this bitch to die slowly for the cost of her failure to seize Smashopolis, and for daring to make a mockery of ME!".

"Yes, my lord" they said in unison as Ridley left the dungeon.

Several minutes later when he was back on the main bridge, he ordered Faust to take the helm while he tried to think of a new plan in his quarters. After the assault fleet retreated from Smashopolis, Faust and his team had also returned with disappointing news; the Sacred Items were nowhere to be found. Faust had also been wounded by Lip's flower seed attack back down in the Smashopolis Research Facility, so he was still healing up, but still able for command.

Thousands of Black Shadow members had been lost in the battle back on Earth, along with countless numbers of fighters, and the _Thanatos_ had taken calamitous damage as well. It didn't matter though, because he still had a whole fleet full of ships to send in, the slave ships included. Ridley also had something else on his mind, or rather someone, and that was Lloyd Florence.

"Florence...!" Ridley hissed, clenching his metal fists.

Just thinking of his name was enough to make Ridley lose his temper, and once that happened, it was impossible for anyone to placate him while in his presence. Lloyd had been the one who had nearly wiped out the Black Shadow organization many years ago, and the one responsible for inflicting the life threatening injuries on Ridley that lead to becoming a human cyborg, a shell of his once organic self. After years of planning revenge, Lloyd was still successful in beating him again, even after losing his own fleet and getting stranded in an asteroid field out in deep space.

And the Black Shadow organization would have thought that Lloyd had perished along with his puny ship out there all along in space, but no! Those meddling fools of Smashopolis just had to stick their asses in places where they didn't belong, and then find this man, an enemy of the organization that they dared to save. Because of this, Ridley lost thousands of his men, imperial fighters, and the _Thanatos_ had been severely damaged, and this was all Lloyd's doing.

It would take weeks to mend the damage to the destroyer, but that didn't matter, because Ridley still had a lot more ships to send in. But this time, he would ensure that Smashopolis received no help from the other realms, and he knew just how to do it. Ridley remembered that the battleship _Savage Oppress_ was equipped with an EMP cannon that could render technical devices and technology useless, and he realized that if it were used on the Transwarp Gate, Smashopolis would be trapped without assistance.

The other realms would be unable to send help to the city, and to Lloyd and his friends. Yes, Ridley was beginning to foresee his victory now, and he intended to see that he got that victory by exterminating Lloyd Florence and by gaining control of Smashopolis and the Transwarp Gate. Ridley quickly left his quarters and headed back to the bridge to explain his new plan to his crew and the rest of his organization.

Once Ridley entered the bridge, Faust turned around in the captain's chair with a surprised expression, then said, "Oh, General, did you come up with a new plan?".

"Yes, I did," Ridley said with a nod. "Contact the battleship _Savage Oppress_ and order Captain Klarg to target the Transwarp Gate with his ships EMP cannon. I want to ensure that Smashopolis has no chance of obtaining reinforcements from the other realms once I order our next attack".

A puzzled expression came over Faust's face.

"Blast it with an EMP pulse?" He exclaimed. "But General, if we do that, won't that pretty much render it permanently useless? It'll be worthless to us if that happens".

"No," Ridley replied. "The Transwarp Gate will only be disabled for about four to five days, giving us plenty of time to execute my new plan".

"New plan? And what would that be?" Faust asked curiously.

"I want the Transwarp Gate to be offline so that when we launch our next attack on Smashopolis, the planet will have no assistance from the other realms. Without help, Smashopolis will be defenceless" Ridley explained.

"I see," Faust replied, analysing the situation. "Yes, that would do perfectly well. I'll inform the _Savage Oppress_ of your orders right away".

Faust then swung the chair back around and then contacted the battleship _Savage Oppress_ on the console, informing Captain Klarg Revans about the orders instructed to him by the General. Then he turned back to Ridley and informed him that his orders would be carried out right away.

"Good," Ridley said, grinning. "We'll finally put those fools in their place, and I'll finally have Lloyd Florence in my hands along with the Sacred Items, then we shall take back what is rightfully ours!".

...

...

"So, this is the Transwarp Gate?" Lloyd asked Red and Pikachu as the three of them stopped in front of an enormous ring like structure near the huge cable TV like antenna dish just a few feet ahead of them.

"You got it," Red replied. "This device is what interdimensional travel between different realms possible. It can not only allow people and animals to travel between realms, but the Transwarp Gate can also direct the transport portals into the sky and allow other ships and flying machines to travel between realms as well. It can take you to any realm you want just by inputting the right location, realm, and coordinates in a computer built into the portal ring".

"You mean this thing?" Lloyd asked, walking up to a computer built into the side of the enormous ring.

"Yeah, this is it. I'll just need to input the coordinates and then we'll be on our way to the Kanto Region," Red replied, selecting the desired realm and typing in several commands on the keyboard. "There we go! The portal should open right about... now!".

As if right on que, a set of blue lights lit up on top of the ring and then with a soft whirring noise, a portal materialized in front of them and revealed a swirl of blue like a swirling wormhole in space.

"Here's the portal. Once we go through it, we should both emerge in Saffron City in Kanto, so let's get going" Red said and started towards the portal, but stopped when Pikachu started acting up.

"Pika, pika!" Pikachu cried out, pointing up at the sky and tugging at Red's pant leg.

"What is it, Pikachu? What's going on?" Red asked, turning around.

Just then, Lloyd looked up and saw a red beam of light coming down from the sky and heading straight for them.

"Shit! Quick, inside the portal, now!" Lloyd shouted, grabbing Red by his wrist and pulling him towards the portal.

Pikachu quickly followed them into the portal just as the beam struck the Transwarp Gate antenna, causing massive damage to it. Inside the portal, the three of them found themselves swimming in a swirl of blue and grey, as if flying through space and time, then they were gone.

...

...

"General Ridley, this is Captain Klarg of the battleship _Savage Oppress._ I'm pleased to announce that my ships EMP cannon has scored a direct hit on the Transwarp Gate. It is now offline" Captain Klarg reported over his ships com channel.

 _"Excellent work, Captain Klarg. Phase one of my new plan is complete, now I shall plan the next phase of the mission. Await further orders until then"_ General Ridley replied, very pleased with his success, then signed off.

"Those fools will soon get what's coming for them once we give them hell" Captain Klarg gloated as he sat back in his Captain's chair, his head full of thoughts on how many fools he'd exterminate down in Smashopolis once their next attack began.

...

...

"Ugh, my aching head," Red moaned as he sat up and rubbed his head.

"Chaa" Pikachu said, standing back up.

"What the hell just happened? And where are we?" Lloyd wondered, also sitting up and observing his surroundings.

The three of them appeared to have landed in a large forest of some sort at what appeared to be nightfall. Once Red and Pikachu became more aware of the area around them, perplexed expressions came over their faces.

"Um, this doesn't look like any city to me. Are we even in the Kanto Region?" Lloyd asked in confusion, now standing back on his feet.

"I'm not sure," Red replied, standing up as well. "This forest doesn't look like any forest I've seen in Kanto or Johto, or any of the other regions in my realm. Let me check my Pokegear map and see where we are".

Red then flipped open a device wrapped around his wrist and began scanning the map card for any trace of their location, but that's when things got a bit concerning. When Red checked for the map of the realm, the Pokegear didn't show a map. Instead, the map screen was black with a three white question marks on the top and a message in white letters below that said, "Unidentified Realm, Location Unknown". There was no phone service anywhere either, and the radio picked up only static.

"So, where are we?" Lloyd questioned.

"Lloyd," Red began, sounding a bit nervous. "Somethings wrong. This realm isn't listed anywhere in my Pokegear, and I'm not picking up any phone signals or radio stations anywhere. I think we've just landed in an uncharted realm".

"What? How did that happen? I thought you said the Transwarp Gate would take us to Kanto" Lloyd asked in concern.

"I know, but that red beam hit the Transwarp Gate, it must have done something to it and caused us to go off course into an unknown realm" Red replied.

"That red beam...," Lloyd said, looking up. "Where do you suppose it came from?".

"No idea, but whatever it was, it did something to the Transwarp Gate and sent us all here in this unknown realm. We'd better find out just where we are and how to get back to Smashopolis. Maybe there's a city or a town somewhere beyond this forest where we can get help" Red replied, looking around at the moonlit forest surrounding them.

"Pikachu" Pikachu said.

"Then we'd better get going, and keep on the lookout. There's no telling what might be in this forest" Lloyd said cautiously.

The gang then made their way through the mysterious forest, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious or hostile. Most of the forest was dark since it was nightfall, but the light of the full moon provided enough light for the three of them to observe their surroundings. There were large patches of grass nearby and a few flowers in the clearing, but there didn't seem to be anyone or anything out and about.

Just then, Pikachu stopped as he sensed something nearby, then said, "Pika, pika!".

"What is it, Pikachu? You see something?" Red asked the curious pokemon.

"Pika, Pikachu" Pikachu said, pointing to a set of multiple glowing lights in the distance to their left.

"Lights! Maybe someone's there," Lloyd pointed out. "Lets go check it out, but be on guard. This is an unknown realm, so we don't know if whatever is making that light is hostile or not".

The three of them headed into the direction of the strange glowing lights, preparing themselves for any hostile enemies that might be lurking nearby. Once they entered the clearing teaming with flowers, a truly baffling sight beheld the three of them.

"Pika?!" Pikachu exclaimed in surprise.

"No way!" Lloyd's eyes widened at what he saw dancing in the flowers.

What the three of them thought to be lights were actually fairies! Each one of them a different color, and judging by their appearance, they all appeared to be female. Each one of them were about the size of a soda can with slender bodies, some with short hair, some with long hair, and each one had a set of wings resembling a dragonfly.

"These fairies kind of remind me of Link's guardian fairy, Navi. But I don't think I've seen any fairies like these before" Red said, kneeling near the flowers.

One of the fairies noticed Red and flew out of her flower to check him out. She had a red-orange colored glow and had a tiny yellow flower in her short hair. She flew up in front of Red and all around him, wondering just who he was and where he had come from.

"Um, hi there," Red greeted casually. "Do you know the name of this place? We don't know where we are".

The fairy looked at him with a confused expression, as if she had no idea what he was saying.

"It doesn't look like she understands you. It's quite possible that these fairies don't understand our language" Lloyd said.

"Pika? Pi, Pikachu?" Pikachu said to the small fairy, making jesters with his paws, as if trying to communicate with the tiny sprite.

The small sprite nodded and then turned to the other fairies, speaking to them in an unintelligible form of language that Red and Lloyd couldn't identify.

"What in the world is she saying?" Lloyd asked Red.

"No idea," Red replied, checking his Pokegear. "My Pokegear's language translator can't identify what it is they're saying; it registers as "Unidentified Language". Their language pattern is either too sophisticated for the translator to identify, or its a completely new form of unidentified dialectic that the translator isn't familiar with".

"I take it that means you have no clue either" Lloyd concluded.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. This _is_ an uncharted realm after all, so it's only natural that something like this would happen" Red said with a nod.

"I figured as much," Lloyd sighed. "Navigating through here may be harder than I thought".

...

...

"Try it again! We've got to get this thing working and find out where Lloyd, Red, and Pikachu went" Snake ordered.

R.O.B primed the electrical jump starter again and attempt to reactivate the Transwarp Gate, but nothing happened. He had been working for several hours trying to fix the Transwarp Gate, but nothing he tried worked. Ness and Lucas had even tried using their PSI to help, but that wasn't any good either.

"Its no good, Snake," R.O.B reported, shaking his head. "All the circuits in the Transwarp Gate are completely burned out. I'm guessing that the beam that struck it earlier must have been an EMP. That's the only thing that could have done this".

"The big question is where it came from and who fired it" Samus said, looking up.

Snake looked up and began pondering his thoughts, wondering just who would want to damage the Transwarp Gate, and why. Then, a terrible thought suddenly crossed Snake's mind and his expression turned from confused to horrified.

"Snake, what is it?" Samus asked Snake, noticing his expression.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Ness asked as well.

"I think," he said finally. "I think that EMP pulse... was phase one".

"Phase one? What are you talking about?" Samus asked in confusion.

"I don't quite understand either" Lucas added.

"I think the Black Shadow organization was the one behind this, and if what I'm guessing is true, they're planning another invasion" Snake implied.

"Another invasion? What makes you think that?" R.O.B asked him.

"Think about it," Snake said. "The Black Shadow organization invaded us five days ago and failed after driving them back out into space with the help of our allies from the other realms. But if they were to take out the Transwarp Gate and prevent our allies from helping us-".

"No! Then they'd be able to launch a successful invasion and win!" Samus realized with a horrified gasp.

"Exactly," Snake answered grimly. "We lost a lot of Raiden fighters, military vehicles, and soldiers from the last invasion and have barely recovered from it. There's no way we'd stand a chance against another invasion, not even with help from our other allied forces on this planet".

"That is a definite possibility," R.O.B agreed. "Even with assistance from the other military forces from the other nations combined with our crippled defense force wouldn't be enough to stop a whole invasion fleet with such advanced technology".

"But we did succeed in driving out that massive dreadnaught, and it was almost as big as this city. If we stopped them once, we could do it again, right?" Ness inquired.

"No, not this time we won't," Snake answered. "The only reason we won the first time was because we had assistance from the other realms, and with the Ultraship. We've also exhausted a lot of military resources from the last invasion, and now that the Transwarp Gate is damaged, we have no one to help us. Even with the assistance of the other nations military forces combined, we'd still stand no chance against the Black Shadow organization".

"What'll we do then?" Lucas questioned, now getting worried.

"I don't know, Lucas," Snake answered. "But unless we can get the Transwarp Gate fixed, we're done for".

"But what about Lloyd, Red, and Pikachu?" Ness said.

"We'll try and locate them once we get the Transwarp Gate back up and running. For now, we'll just have to hope that whatever realm they've landed in, it's a safe one" Snake answered, not really knowing what lay ahead.

* * *

 **A/N: Looks like dark times are ahead yet again for Smashopolis. Will the city be doomed to the mercy of the Black Shadow? And will Lloyd, Red, and Pikachu ever find a way out of the _Fantasia_ realm? Yeah, in case no one's been able to guess, the uncharted realm that they landed in is from _Fantasia._ I've always loved those season sprites in the Nutcracker Suite part of the film, so that gave me the idea to add the _Fantasia_ realm into this story. Also, I'll be working on my Pokemon and Bible Black story that's been on hold for awhile. Until then, I hope you all enjoy the story and I'll see you next time.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hey folks, I've finally got the next chapter ready after all this time. We last left our hero's in the Fantasia realm unaware of where they were or what to do. This chapter features several more familiar characters and locations, so read on to find out who and what they are, and happy New year.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are all that I own.**

* * *

Chapter 13: The Kingdom Of Fantasia

"Pika, Pikachu" Pikachu jestered at the season sprites.

"I wonder if it's possible that these sprites are able to understand what Pikachu is saying" Red wondered, noticing the fairies reactions to the pokemons jesters.

"They do seem to be aware of Pikachu's way of communication" Lloyd said, noticing how the sprites were responding to Pikachu in their own language.

"Pikachu, try and ask them were we can find a way out of this realm" Red ordered.

Pikachu began making jesters at the curious sprites, trying to tell them about why they were here and what it was the three of them wanted. The sprites looked at each other, chattering amongst themselves, obviously aware of what Pikachu was saying.

"You think they understand pokemon language?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"It looks like it. The sprites appear to be responding to Pikachu's dialectic" Red replied, noticing the reactions of the sprites.

The red-orange fairy suddenly flew up in front of Lloyd and waved her hands in front of him, as if urging him to follow her.

"Looks like she wants us to follow her," Lloyd said. "Lets see where she wants us to go. Hopefully, she'll find us a way out of this strange realm".

"Come on Pikachu, let's follow that fairy" Red beckoned as he followed Lloyd.

The three of them followed the sprite through the forest, dimly lit by the light of the full moon. Her glow slightly lit the way ahead as she flew slowly through the forest with Lloyd, Red, and Pikachu tagging along. Lloyd kept an eye out for anything suspicious or hostile that could be lurking in the darkness of the forest where the moon's light couldn't shine upon. He carried his two long combat knives with him at all times while heading out into unknown territory in case the need to use force ever came, yet the use for them didn't come very often in public places.

Lloyd's mind swam with confusion as to just what kind of realm this was and where that strange red beam had come from that had caused the Transwarp Gate to send him and the two smashers here. What worried him even more was the possibility that they could end up trapped in this realm for a long time, or in the worst case scenario, forever. Lloyd shoved that thought aside for now, not wanting to give up hope so quickly. The forest began to grow a bit darker as the group headed into an area with trees surrounding them and blocking out the light of the moon.

"Its starting to get really dark. You got a flashlight, Red?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"No, but I've got someone that can help with that" Red said, taking a pokeball out of his bag.

He tossed the ball in front of him and sent out his Ampharos and commanded it to use Flash. The orb on Ampharos's tail then lit up and surrounded the area with a bright light, allowing the group to see ahead much better.

"Amazing, what pokemon is this?" Lloyd asked, gazing at the yellow and black striped sheep like creature in front of him.

"Its Ampharos, my trusty friend," Red replied as they continued on. "He helps me and Pikachu out when we journey into dark places like caves and forests. I first met him as a Mareep near my hometown in Kanto when I was out training with my other pokemon. He was attacked by a flock of wild Beedrill and injured by one of its poison type attacks, so me and my pokemon took him in, nursed him back to health, and then Mareep agreed to stay with me. After lots of training, Mareep eventually evolved into a Flaaffy, then finally into an Ampharos. He's been with me for three years since we first met".

"Amp!" Ampharos said cheerfully.

The group then continued through the forest, now brightly lit around them from the bright light emitted from Ampharos's tail. Other than the sprite leading them through the forest, no one else seemed to be around and everything was quiet, except for the crickets chirping in the trees and the thin grass. After what seemed like an hour, the sprite lead them up to what looked like an enormous castle just ahead past the forest clearing, then pointed at it.

"A castle! Someone's bound to be inside" Red exclaimed in awe.

"This must be what the sprite was telling Pikachu about," Lloyd said. "Whoever's in that castle might be able to help us find out more about this new realm and how to get back to Smashopolis, so lets get going".

Red looked over at the small sprite, then said, "Thanks for your help. You were very reliable to us".

The sprite smiled and then flew back into the forest, leaving the four of them behind. Lloyd, Red, Pikachu, and Ampharos then made their way towards the massive castle just across a long wooden bridge over a large lake. A bunch of bullfrogs sat on lilipads, all fast asleep as the four of them slowly crossed the bridge to keep it from breaking. The wood looked old and slightly rotted, so Lloyd knew they'd have to be careful while crossing it.

"You think anyone's home?" Lloyd wondered as they came closer to the huge wooden door leading inside the castle.

"Amp?" Ampharos said, walking up and tapping on the door with his brightened tail.

The group waited several minutes for someone to arrive and open the door, but no one showed up.

"Doesn't look like anybody's answering. They must be asleep or something" Red guessed.

The group was about to knock again when the doors suddenly opened slowly to reveal the inside of the castle which was dimly lit by torches in the brick walls. They didn't know whether or not they should enter or turn back, but Lloyd felt that the answers they sought to returning to Smashopolis were inside this castle, so he lead them inside and Ampharos's light lit the way.

"You think that just barging in is a wise plan? What if the people in this castle are hostile?" Red wondered.

"Those doors opened on their own," Lloyd inquired. "Someone had to have heard us coming. Let's find out where they are".

"We'd better stick together then. This castle is huge and we could get lost if we get separated" Red suggested.

"Pika, Pikachu" Pikachu said in agreement.

"Amp" Ampharos added, leading the way with his brightened tail.

Lloyd looked all around and saw that they appeared to be in what looked like a long hallway with a luxurious blue carpet leading down it with gold linings on the edges. At the end of the hall was a split direction staircase that lead up to a set of closed doors, and in the center of these staircases was a large portrait of a man with a long grey beard wearing a blue robe and a blue hat with white stars on it.

"You suppose he's the owner of this castle?" Lloyd asked Red.

"He must be," he answered. "Maybe he's the one who opened the doors".

As the four of them made it to the end of the hall, they decided to try the door on the left. Lloyd tried pulling the door open, but it was locked from the inside, so this one was no good. They tried opening the other one, and this one turned out to be unlocked, so it swung open as Lloyd pulled the large handle.

"Whoa, it's pitch black in here," Red exclaimed, glancing at Pikachu. "Pikachu, use Flash and give us some extra light".

"Pika" Pikachu nodded, casting a bright white light from the red pouches on his cheeks that shined ahead like headlights, adding extra light to the area all around them.

With the light from Ampharos's tail and Pikachu's flash, the area was now fully lit to reveal another set of stairs leading downwards into a large chamber with a water well at the bottom. Once the four of them made it to the bottom, they jumped at the sound of a voice nearby.

"Who goes there?" a male voice called out to them.

The four of them turned and saw what looked like a bipedal mouse in a red robe and was wearing the same hat as they had seen the man wearing in the painting.

"Pika, Pikachu?" Pikachu exclaimed, rushing up to the mouse with curiosity.

"Pikachu? Is that who you are?" The mouse asked curiously.

"Pika" Pikachu nodded.

"And who are you guys?" The mouse asked Lloyd, Red, and Ampharos.

"I'm Red, a pokemon trainer," Red greeted, then glanced over at Lloyd. "This here's Lloyd Florence, a space marine, and this is my other pokemon named Ampharos. Who are you?".

"The names Mickey; Mickey Mouse," the mouse answered. "I'm the apprentice of Master Yensid, the wizard of this castle".

"Yensid? Is he the one with the blue robe, long beard, and the same hat as your wearing?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"Yeah, that's him," Mickey nodded. "I take it you saw the painting of him back there?".

"Yes, we did," Lloyd said with a nod. "We're actually wondering where we can find someone to help us get back to a certain realm called Smashopolis".

"Hmm, I'm not sure what realm your referring to. I've never heard of any realm by that name before" Mickey replied, tapping his foot.

"Well, what's this realm called?" Red asked curiously.

"Your in the kingdom of Fantasia, and this is Master Yensid's castle" Mickey answered.

"Fantasia," Lloyd said, looking around. "So that's what this place is. I've never seen this realm before".

"Neither have I," Red remarked. "This realm was never listed in the Transwarp Gate's archives, so I doubt anyone from Smashopolis has ever been here before".

"Do you know where Yensid is? Maybe he can help us find a way out of Fantasia" Lloyd asked Mickey.

"He's in his study chamber practicing white magic," Mickey answered, pointing at a closed door at the top of a long stairway with light peering out from under it. "He was actually aware of your arrival at the castle, so I'll take you to him right away".

"Really? That would be great," Red replied, then held up a pokeball. "Ampharos, return".

Ampharos returned to his pokeball and then the group followed Mickey up the steps towards Master Yensid's study chamber. Lloyd's curiosity grew as he followed the others up the steps. He never thought he'd end up in a realm where wizards and fairies existed, and this was quite an exquisite place indeed, yet Lloyd knew he couldn't stay here in Fantasia Kingdom for long.

He and Red had to get back to Smashopolis and find out just what had happened back there with that strange red beam that might have damaged the Transwarp Gate. Lloyd had a very bad feeling that the Black Shadow organization might have been the one behind it, and the reason he and Red ended up in Fantasia Kingdom. If the Black Shadow had been the reason for this unprecedented occurrence, then Lloyd knew that they must be planning something, something very horrible.

Once they reached the top of the stairs, Mickey gently pushed the door open to reveal a small room with a large bed in the far left corner, a table with spell books and potions on the right side of the room, and in the center of the room stood Yensid in front of a large cauldron gazing at the group as they entered the chamber.

"Master Yensid, here are the guests" Mickey informed the old wizard as they approached the cauldron.

"Ah, the new arrivals," Yensid said in an elderly voice. "So, you are Red, Lloyd, and Pikachu".

"Yeah, your right," Red said in a surprised tone. "How did you know who we are?".

"I can read the memories of those who enter the castle. Once you three entered through the front doors, I was able to identify who you three were by reading your memories with white magic" Yensid answered.

"Wow, really?" Lloyd asked in amazement.

"Indeed," Yensid nodded. "I know that Red is a powerful pokemon trainer from the Kanto Region in the Pokemon realm, Pikachu is his close friend, and you are a space marine from an alternate universe".

"Whoa, he really _does_ know who we are" Red exclaimed in awe.

"Pika, pika" Pikachu replied, feeling just as amazed as Red and Lloyd.

"Master Yensid, is there any way out of this realm? We've got to get back to Smashopolis as soon as we can, and its very urgent that we do" Lloyd wondered.

"Yes, there is a way, but it's not so simple" Yensid answered.

"Not so simple? What do you mean by that?" Red asked curiously.

"In order to travel in between other realms, there is a certain magic spell that must be used. But in order for it to be conjured up, a special magic potion must be brewed, and it requires four very rare ingredients" Yensid explained.

"Yes, but these four ingredients are extremely rare and difficult to find here in Fantasia" Mickey said with a nod.

"Oh great," Red said with a sigh of frustration. "Now we'll never get back to Smashopolis".

"Don't get your pants in a twist, Red," Lloyd calmly said. "I'm not about to give now, and neither should you. If there's any hope of getting back to Smashopolis, it's that magic potion".

"Your friend is right, Red," Yensid agreed. "This potion, also known as Travelers Brew, is the only potion capable of allowing you to travel back to the realm you came from. My apprentice Mickey Mouse will go along with you to obtain the ingredients needed to brew the potion".

"Are you suggesting that we go on some sort of quest through Fantasia to search for these ingredients?" Red hinted.

"Yes, I must stay with the castle to keep it guarded, so that's why you three must help me find these ingredients if we're to brew the potion to help send you back to Smashopolis," Yensid glanced over to Mickey. "Mickey, will you show these two the ingredients needed for the potion?".

Mickey stepped forward with a potions book in his hands, then he held it up to Lloyd while pointing to three images on the page. One looked like a twisted tree root, the second one was a weed of some sort, the third one appeared to be a fruit that resembled a nectarine, and the last one looked like a large black crystal.

"These are the three ingredients we need to gather to brew the Travelers Brew. The first one is an Elder Tree Root located in the land of the dinosaurs, the second one is a Flare Flower Weed which can be found in the centaur forest, the third one is a sprite berry which grows in the seasonal sprite forest that you three arrived here in, and the last one is a Night Crystal located in the demon hideout on Bald Mountain" Mickey explained, pointing at each image.

"I don't think I recognize that forest," Lloyd pointed at the root image. "The forest that me and Red appeared in looked different from this one".

"The centaur forest is about five miles west of the castle, but Bald Mountain is far north, and we'll have to use extreme caution when going there" Mickey told him.

"What's so bad about Bald Mountain?" Red asked Mickey.

"Bald Mountain is a very dangerous place. It is the home of the demon king named Chernabog, the ruler and overlord of the demons and nightmares. Because of that, it is normally a forbidden place to venture into, but because it's the only place where Night Crystals can be found, we have no choice but to go there" the mouse answered grimly.

"Pika?!" Pikachu exclaimed in fear.

"Mickey is correct," Yensid answered with a nod. "Chernabog is a very powerful and dangerous creature, and getting into his hideout to obtain a Night Crystal won't be easy. Venturing over to Bald Mountain alone will be extremely difficult and dangerous, so you three will need to go well prepared before going over there".

"How?" Red asked.

Yensid held his hands above the cauldron and an orb of white light appeared in front of him and then slowly separated into four small glowing balls of light which formed into two long swords and shields. The first sword had a forty inch blade with a gold hilt shaped like a cross with real red rubies on each side's of the hilt, and the second sword was the same one as the first, only with a silver cross shaped hilt with blue sapphires on the edges. The other two orbs formed into hand held metal shields with a Mickey Mouse emblem on the front of them both.

"These magic swords and shields will protect you during your journey to Bald Mountain. The shields are infused with powerful magic that makes it completely indestructible against any element, even fire and magma," Yensid explained. "The swords are infused with white magic capable of destroying evil creatures with ease, and their blades will glow red when a demon is within thirty feet of the wielder. The Kingdom of Fantasia has many dangers in the darker regions such as Bald Mountain and other places near it, so use these weapons to defend yourselves, and proceed with caution".

Lloyd took the gold sword and shield, and Red took the silver sword and shield. Lloyd had never used a sword or a shield before since most of the weapons he used as a soldier consisted of laser rifles and combat knives.

"Amazing, these swords feel so light, and the shields are easy to handle as well" Lloyd exclaimed in amazement as he placed the sword into its holder and slipped the strap over his shoulder along with the shield.

"Pika, pika" Pikachu said with perky ears.

"Swords and shields aren't usually my thing, but these are pretty cool," Red commented, slipping the sword holder strap over his shoulder along with the silver shield. "Link would absolutely love these if he were here".

"Who's this Link?" Mickey asked curiously.

"He's one of our friends from another realm called Hyrule" Red answered.

"Hyrule... never heard of that realm before" Mickey replied, glancing briefly upwards.

"You'd love it there," Red remarked. "Me and Pikachu have been there many times, and its a beautiful place. There's forests, fairies, elves, and other magical beings there like in this realm".

Once the group was fully prepared for their new adventure through Fantasia, Yensid said, "So, are the four of you ready to begin your quest?".

"Yeah, we're prepared" Red nodded.

"Pika, Pikachu" Pikachu said as well.

"All right then," Mickey said, grabbing a brown sack from a nearby shelf. "Lets head for the seasonal sprite forest first. There are a lot of sprite berries there, so finding the first ingredient shouldn't be hard".

"Pika pika" Pikachu said excitedly.

"I bid you four good luck on your quest, and be careful. Some of Chernabog's minions like to lurk around in forests and other dark areas at night, so be prepared to defend yourselves if you come into contact with any of them" Yensid said in a cautious tone.

"Don't worry, I'll watch out for them too" Mickey assured his master as they headed out the door.

"I'm confident that you will, my apprentice" Yensid said as the group left the chamber.

...

...

"Any luck getting the Transwarp Gate back up?" Snake asked R.O.B.

The sun was already setting in Smashopolis as R.O.B continued working hard to fix the Transwarp Gate, but the robot had almost no luck getting it to work again. Samus was also assisting R.O.B in trying to repair the gate, but she had no luck either.

"Not one bit," R.O.B said regrettably. "Every circuit in this thing is completely burned out. They're going to have to be replaced, and that'll take at least five days".

"You can't be serious! Five days?" Snake exclaimed.

"R.O.B, there has to be another way of fixing it quicker. We don't know where Lloyd, Red, and Pikachu have been sent to, and for all we know, it could be a dangerous and uncharted realm. If we don't get this thing back up soon, something bad might happen to them" Samus insisted.

"I understand the risks they might be facing, but there's nothing I can do about it. The Transwarp Gate is going to need new circuits in order to function properly again, and five days is what it's going to take to do it" R.O.B retorted.

"Then we've got to get those circuits fixed, and quickly. There's no telling what danger Red, Lloyd, and Pikachu might be in as we speak, nor do we know what realm they were sent to" Snake urged R.O.B.

"Don't worry, I'll get started on it right away, and Samus will assist me. Hopefully, the Transwarp Gate will be back up and running in five days if we work fast enough" R.O.B replied.

"I hope so," Snake looked up at the night sky. "Red, Lloyd, Pikachu, wherever you are, be safe".

...

...

"We've gotten pretty far from the castle," Red pointed out. "You sure this is the right forest? It doesn't look much like the same area we arrived here in".

"Trust me, I know where I'm going. I've been through all of Fantasia, except Bald Mountain, so I know these areas inside and out" Mickey assured him.

"Pika, pi" Pikachu mumbled as he followed beside Red, seemingly bored.

"So, you said only a few of these sprite berries are ripe for picking at this time of year, right?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"That's right, so you can only find them in a certain part of the forest, and its just up ahead" Mickey said, pointing at a patch of fruit bearing trees near a wide lake just ahead of them.

A few of them were apple trees, some were cherry trees, but there was one tree that didn't look like the others at the center of the lake on a small island just big enough for one person to stand on. This tree had sparkling blue leaves and dozens of gold colored fruits on it; it was the sprite berry tree.

"There it is, the sprite berry tree," Mickey pointed at the tree. "All we need to do is pluck one berry from the tree and then we can be on our way".

"But how do we get to it? It's in the middle of this lake, and the waters too deep to wade through" Lloyd pointed out.

"Those stepping stones right there lead to the tree," Mickey pointed to a set of flat stones to his left, sticking out of the water and leading to the tree. "But only one of us can fit on the stones and the island".

"I'll go across it," Red offered. "Pikachu is getting a bit peckish, so I'll grab some for all of us".

"All right, you go fetch the sprite berry and Lloyd and I will wait here for you" Mickey agreed.

Red then slowly and carefully began crossing the stones, trying not to fall in the water as Pikachu followed behind him. Once they made it to the tree, Red picked a sprite berry and placed it in his backpack, then he gathered a few more for the group to eat during their quest.

"Pika, pika?" Pikachu held out his paws as Red picked a sprite berry.

"You hungry, Pikachu?" Red asked him.

"Pika" Pikachu nodded.

"Okay, here you go," Red tossed Pikachu a sprite berry. "Taste good?".

Pikachu bit into the gold colored fruit which tasted like a mixture of blackberries and strawberries, then ate the rest of it.

"Chaa" Pikachu said in a happy tone.

Red and Pikachu then crossed back over to the other side where Mickey and Lloyd were waiting for them.

"I got some sprite berries for us to eat and one for the potion, so that leaves three ingredients left to find" Red informed the group, showing them the berries.

"Excellent," Mickey said. "We should rest up for the night and then continue our quest in the morning since its so late".

"I agree, I'm feeling quite tired myself" Lloyd said, feeling a bit drowsy.

"Well then, I'll set up the tents for each of us" Mickey said, reaching into his sack and pulling out a large red, blue, and green tent from it which fully set themselves up with the help of Mickey's magic.

"Wow, is that a magic sack?" Red asked in amazement.

"Yep, made it myself with the help of Yensid. It has the power to bend space inside it so that larger objects like tents, table, and other stuff can fit inside it. That's why I never leave the castle without it," Mickey explained, opening the blue tent flap. "I'll take the blue tent, Lloyd can use the green one, and Red and Pikachu can use the red tent".

"Okay, but why don't we eat first before going to sleep in our tents, cause I'm feeling a bit hungry" Red suggested.

"So am I" Lloyd also replied.

"That's fine with me," Mickey agreed, taking one of the sprite berries from Red. "These sprite berries are a good fruit to eat. They have lots of fiber and they also have the power to heal any injury when eaten".

"Healing powers? I didn't know that," Lloyd gazed down at the sprite berry Red had handed him. "We should save some of these in case we need them, especially when we head over to Bald Mountain. There's no telling what we might run into there".

"Your right about that," Red agreed with a nod. "It's not like the demons up there are gonna let us in without a fight".

"You've got a great point there, Red. I've never been to Bald Mountain before, but Master Yensid has. And from what he told me about it, the creatures there are savage and won't hesitate to attack intruders, so we'll be in for a hard fight once we get there" Mickey said grimly.

"Yeah, but we'll worry about that later when the time comes, so let's eat" Lloyd replied, biting into a sprite berry.

...

...

Meanwhile in Sonic's realm, Sonic's best friend Miles Prower, formally known as Tails stood near the base of a young tree with blooming pink flower petals with a saddened expression on his face and drooped tails as the full moon shined brightly upon him. Tails gazed down at a gold colored plaque that had been cemented into the ground in front of the young tree which read, **"This tree is dedicated in loving memory to Cosmo the Seedrian, a great friend who's sacrifice shall never be forgotten".**

"Cosmo..." Tails sighed softly, wiping a tear from his eye.

It had been seven years since Cosmo had sacrificed her life to destroy the evil Metarex leader, free the stolen planet eggs, and spread her seeds of life across the galaxy to resurrect her species. Tails remembered that day very well, and he also blamed himself for Cosmo's death since he had been the one who destroyed the dark seed with his ships cannon once Cosmo merged with it. Although Tails knew that it had to be done in order to prevent the Metarex from ending all life in the galaxy, he was never able to get over it completely.

Tails had never told anyone the truth before, and that was that he'd been in love with Cosmo. Although she had just been a friend to him when they first met, Tails had begun to experience something more than just friendship towards Cosmo, and he soon realized that it was love. This was what pained Tails the most; he had never gotten the chance to tell Cosmo about how much he loved her, and never would.

"Why... why did you have to die? Why...?" Tails whimpered, feeling tears falling from his face.

Not a day went by that he didn't forget Cosmo and the horrible revelation that he had been the one to end her life on that day seven years ago, long before Sonic had become a Smasher. There were a few times that he had even turned to Prozac pills just to calm his depression over the loss of Cosmo, but Sonic and his friends had done their best to sway Tails from that path as they did not want to see their best friend resort to using anti-depressant drugs to relieve his stress; no good would come from drug use.

"Tails, you okay?" A male voice asked him.

Tails turned to see Sonic standing next to him, looking concerned for his best friend. Tails wiped his eyes and stood up, trying to compose himself.

"It's nothing..." Tails lied, but Sonic knew better.

"Come on Tails, I know that look and tone. Your upset about Cosmo, aren't you?" Sonic said.

Tails sighed in defeat, then said, "Why did she have to die, Sonic? Why couldn't there have been another way?".

"Tails, we've all been through this many times before; you know there wasn't any other option," Sonic lectured. "If she hadn't done it, we'd all be dead right now along with the rest of everyone else in the galaxy. Cosmo did it to save us all, and you should be thankful for that".

Tails was outraged by what Sonic just said and clenched his gloved hands and teeth angrily. He never thought that he'd hear something like that from any of his friends, especially Sonic.

"Are you saying that I should be grateful for killing Cosmo just to save the galaxy?! How dare you! You have no idea how much she truly meant to me, Sonic! How could you say something like that to me? I'd expect someone like Dr. Eggman to say that, not you!" Tails shot back angrily.

"Tails, she meant a lot to all of us, but it had to be done. If Cosmo hadn't done what she had to do, the Metarex would have won and we'd all be at their mercy, and that would have been the selfish way out" Sonic argued.

"No, I don't mean it being as just a friend," Tails retorted. "I loved her, Sonic! _Loved_ her, as in like being together forever. Cosmo was more than just a friend to me; I truly and deeply loved her, and I never got the chance to tell her that, and now I never will".

Sonic's expression changed to a surprised look when Tails told him this. He had always suspected that Tails had been a bit closer to Cosmo than everyone had thought, but Sonic never believed that Tails had been in love with her.

"Tails, are you serious?" The surprised hedgehog asked him.

"Yes it's true, but it's not like you'd care, cause Cosmo's dead" Tails snapped, turning his back to Sonic.

"Of course I care! I'm your best friend, Tails," Sonic insisted, placing his hand on Tails's shoulder. "I didn't know that you harbored these kind of feelings towards Cosmo, but I can understand how hard it is to lose someone you love. A space marine named Lloyd Florence told me about how he lost the love of his life out in space during a war with a criminal organization known as Black Shadow while I was at Smash Mansion in Smashopolis, and he's been pretty depressed about it".

"Black Shadow? You mean that fleet of psychos that attacked Smashopolis a week ago?" Tails asked curiously, turning back to face Sonic.

"Yeah, that's them," Sonic nodded. "Lloyd's from the same universe as them, and he's been at war with them for years. He's lost a lot of friends and even family to those evil crooks, but I can tell that he's trying hard to move on, and so should you. It's what Cosmo would want you to do".

As Tails and Sonic conversed with each other, Knuckles the Echidna was currently guarding the Chaos Emeralds and the large Master Emerald over on Angel Island when it suddenly glowed bright green. He turned his attention towards the massive gem and suddenly begin to experience something disturbing.

"What's this, Master Emerald? A vision?" Knuckles exclaimed as he began seeing images flow through his vision.

In his vision, Knuckles saw several black ships hovering in the skies of Green Hill Zone where a fleet of soldiers in black were attacking Angel Island and the rest of the world horribly, causing irreversible damage. What was even worse was that the supposed leader of these soldiers stood in the middle of the carnage with all seven Chaos Emeralds in his possession. Their leader also appeared to be a human being of both man and machine with a very sinister aura surrounding him.

Knuckles then witnessed all of the other realms suffering similar fates as Green Hill Zones fate, some of them even worse. He recognized a few of these realms such as Skyworld, Angel Land, Hyrule Kingdom, Dreamland, and the Pokemon realm. Knuckles saw Hyrule being consumed by fire and its inhabitants enslaved by these evil soldiers, some of them even being horribly murdered. The rest of the realms he saw suffered the same fate as Hyrule, but Dreamlands fate was the worst of all.

Knuckles watched in horror as an enormous black ship fired a massive beam of red energy at Pop Star from space, blasting the entire star shaped planet apart into space dust. It did the same thing to the other five planets in Pop Stars solar system; Rock Star, Aqua Star, Neo Star, Shiver Star, and Ripple Star... all completely destroyed and scattered throughout space in pieces, then Knuckles vision ended. Once this nightmarish vision ended, Knuckles found himself shaking with horror and concern.

Never in his years as guardian of the seven Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald had Knuckles seen something like this. Although he had witnessed similar events during the mission with Sonic and his friends to stop the Metarex, none of those events were as horrifying as this vision he'd just had. When Knuckles tried guessing who these black clad soldiers were, his mind quickly flashed back to Sonic telling him about the Black Shadow attack on Smashopolis just a week ago and then realized that this had to be the same criminal organization he'd seen in his vision.

"I gotta find Sonic and tell him about this" Knuckles said aloud, rushing towards the Green Hill Zone as quickly as he could.

He didn't know if that vision was set in stone or not, but either way, he had to warn the others about what he had seen.

* * *

 **A/N: Looks like things are getting dark now. What will happen next? You'll find out soon.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hey SSBB fans, I'm FINALLY done with this chapter after a long grueling writers block, so sit back and enjoy chapter 14. Life's busy, so future chapters may be delayed, but I won't give up yet.**

 **Disclaimer: My OC characters are all that I own.**

* * *

Chapter 14: Through The Desert

"Knuckles, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost" Sonic asked the worried echidna.

"Worse, it was a vision shown to me by the Master Emerald" Knuckles answered gravely.

"A vision? What did you see?" Tails asked in concern.

Knuckles began to explain everything he'd seen in the vision; the subjugation of various realms, including their own realm, along with the complete destruction of Pop Star and its planets at the hands of soldiers clad in black. It was a long and horrid description, and when Knuckles finally fell silent, Sonic and Tails were filled with horror.

"Knuckles, are you sure that's everything you saw?" Tails asked.

"Positive," Knuckles confirmed. "I don't know if I'm right, but I can't think of any other logical answer. Those soldiers I saw in that vision had to have been the so called Black Shadow organization, the same one that Sonic mentioned about a week ago".

"If that's the case, then we've got to warn everyone of the realms, including Smashopolis about this. We need to be prepared in case the Black Shadow launches another attack, otherwise Knuckles vision might end up coming to pass" Sonic informed.

"I'll head to the Transwarp Gate near the Emerald Hill and send a message to Smashopolis and all the other realms about what I saw. I just hope that this vision doesn't come true. We almost lost our home once to the Metarex when they stole our planet egg, and I don't want to lose it again" Knuckles replied, recalling the time when the Metarex stole the planet egg that gave life to their world many years ago.

"We won't, not as long as we all stick together" Sonic assured him.

"I hope so," Knuckles replied. "The thought of seeing such a horrid fate befall upon our world is something I _won't_ let happen, not on my life".

"What won't you let happen" a girl's voice asked them.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails turned to the source of the voice and saw Cream the Rabbit standing near the tree with her friend Cheese the Chao.

"Cream? I didn't know you were here" Tails exclaimed.

"I came up here to see what you were doing and heard you three talking about our world being in danger," Cream said, turning to Knuckles. "Is it true, Knuckles? Are we in danger?".

"Chu, Chu?" Cheese asked, looking worried.

"I don't know, Cream, but from what the Master Emerald showed me, we could be" Knuckles replied gravely.

...

...

Lloyd moaned as he turned in his sleep from the nightmare he was currently having. In the nightmare, Lloyd found himself inside the battleship _Inquisitor,_ the ship that his deceased lover Lunara had commanded before it had been destroyed by the Black Shadow organization. All around him, flames leapt over the walls of the bulkheads throughout the ship's corridors as the red alert alarms blared throughout the ship and red lights flashed on the ceiling.

Lloyd rushed through the corridors, calling out for anyone who might be alive, but there was no response. As he got further down the corridor, he noticed something coming into view, and it was an absolutely terrible scene. There were dead USF soldiers laying all over the corridor, and they had appeared to have been killed in very horrid ways, such as having their limbs blown off and some others with their insides blasted all over the walls.

As he turned down other corridors, Lloyd found burning metal beams and wires hanging down from above along with more dead bodies and charred walls. Once he made it to the end of the hall, Lloyd saw... her. Lunara was there, standing at the end of the hall with her back turned to Lloyd and glancing at another corridor to her left which she began running down.

"Lunara, Lunara!" Lloyd called out, running after her while trying to avoid the flames and large pieces of burning metal laying about the corridors.

He continued to chase after her until she stopped at a space exit door with yellow and black striped warning tape above it, then she turned to face Lloyd. And when she did, Lloyd screamed in horror at what he saw. Lunara's face wasn't a face at all, but instead a white blood covered skull with pitch black eyes, glaring at him with rage.

"Why?! Why didn't you save me?! Me and my crew are dead! We're all dead because of you, because your weak! Now you will join me and the others... IN HELL!" Lunara hissed in a demonic voice.

She then lounged at Lloyd as her entire body burst into flames, screeching loudly like a banshee with her jaw opened wide revealing rows of razor sharp fangs. As soon as she made physical contact with Lloyd's body, he awoke from the nightmare in a cold sweat, panting fearfully. Lloyd opened his tent and stepped outside in only his sleeveless night shirt and shorts, then walked over by the lake where the sprite berry tree island was and fell to his hands and knees, panting slowly.

Lloyd quickly ran water over his face to try and calm himself down from that horrible nightmare, but it did very little to ease his stress. Lloyd had had nightmares similar to this before, but this one was far different from the nightmares he had before, and it deeply disturbed him.

"Lloyd, you all right?" a voice asked him.

Lloyd turned to see Mickey standing behind him in his PJ's, looking concerned about Lloyd's lamenting mood.

"It... it's nothing," Lloyd said, breathing slowly. "Sorry if I woke you up".

"No, I was already awake when I heard you rush out your tent, so I came over here to see what the matter was" Mickey replied.

"Like I said, it's nothing, so just leave me alone. It's none of your concern anyway" Lloyd snapped, getting up and walking back to his tent.

Mickey reached out his hand to try and say something, but Lloyd had already entered his tent and zipped it closed. He didn't know why Lloyd was so upset, but Mickey had a feeling that he must have had a bad dream and was perturbed by it in a way that he didn't understand. Mickey didn't know Lloyd all too well yet, but he had seen the ugly scars on his muscular arms, chest, and back when he had removed his shirt earlier in order to slip into his night clothes.

Mickey had already gotten the implication that Lloyd must have had a very hard life since he was a soldier, so he figured that Lloyd must have been having a nightmare on his past, like many soldiers often did, but Mickey had no idea just how much Lloyd had really suffered. He didn't know that Lloyd had lost his fleet and his lover to the Black Shadow organization and was struggling with his emotions and inner demons because of it, but Mickey was able to read Lloyd's emotions using his magic skills, and he felt a great deal of emotional conflict going on inside him.

Mickey thought about maybe speaking to Lloyd and consoling him in the morning to try and help him in any way that he could, just as he always did with Donald Duck, Goofy, and Sora when they had problems. For now, Mickey decided to get back to sleep inside his tent so that he'd be well rested up for the big adventure the next day.

...

...

"Hmm, something's wrong" Sonic said as he attempted to open a portal to Smashopolis through the Transwarp Gate.

"What is it, Sonic?" Tails asked him.

"I can't seem to get a portal connection between our realm and Smashopolis's realm. This hasn't ever happened before" Sonic replied, retrying the coordinates in the Transwarp Gate computer, but still having no luck opening a portal.

"Are all the others realms still accessible?" Knuckles asked.

"Lets see," Sonic accessed the status grid for all the other Transwarp Gate portals in the other realms and finding them all green. "Yeah, all the other ones are up, except for Smashopolis".

"That's odd, why is it that Smashopolis is the only one that's not responding?" Tails wondered curiously.

"I don't like the looks of this, Sonic. If we can't open a portal to Smashopolis, we'll never be able to warn them about my vision from the Master Emerald. We've got to find a way to get that portal open" Knuckles replied nervously.

"But how are we going to open it, Knuckles?" Cream asked curiously.

"Hey, why don't we try using the Chaos Emeralds? If we cause Chaos Control, maybe we can teleport to Smashopolis that way" Tails suggested.

"That's too dangerous," Knuckles objected. "If we use Chaos Control, it might cause damage to our own realm, and we can't guarantee that it'll send us to Smashopolis. Chaos Control is not always accurate, and if we use it, we may end up being warped to an unknown realm or possibly even an alternate dimension we have no knowledge of".

"He's right, Tails," Sonic agreed. "Remember when Chaos Control occurred in Chris Thorndikes realm? Instead of sending us back here, it sent parts of our world to the other world, like Angel Island. The same thing might happen again if we caused Chaos Control, only we'd be sent into the unknown".

"Then what'll we do? If the Transwarp Gate in Smashopolis is down, how are we going to get there?" Tails wondered.

"I don't know, but I have another idea that might work" Sonic suggested.

"And what idea might that be?" Knuckles asked him.

"Remember how Chris was able to cross over into our realm using that machine of his several years ago? What if we were to do the same thing? We could cross over into Smashopolis without using the Transwarp Gate" Sonic explained.

"Yeah, but there's only one problem: we don't have that machine, so that idea's not gonna work" Knuckles remarked.

"No, but I know someone who does, and that someone is a person we all know too well" Sonic inquired in a distasteful tone.

"Oh great," Tails muttered. "Please don't tell me it is who I think it is".

"Yeah, it's Dr. Eggman," Sonic answered. "I know it sounds nuts, but we're gonna have to ask Dr. Eggman to borrow the dimensional shifting device in order to get to Smashopolis".

"Eggman?!" Cream exclaimed in shock.

"Sonic, are you nuts? Eggman's our biggest rival and a trickster, and you want us to go begging to him for help?!" Tails snapped.

"No, Sonic's right," Knuckles said. "I don't like the idea of going to Eggman for help, but if he has what we need to get to Smashopolis, then we'll have to try and negotiate with him".

"But what if he refuses?" Tails questioned.

"Then we'll just have to make him listen," Sonic smirked. "Now let's get down to Dr. Eggman's lab".

...

...

"So the next ingredient is in the Land of the Dinosaurs?" Lloyd asked Mickey as they trekked through the forest, now lit by the morning sun.

"Yeah, it's a bit far from here, so we've got quite a ways to go" Mickey replied with a nod.

"How far exactly is it to this place?" Red asked curiously as Pikachu tagged along next to him.

"About a few hours from here, so we'll need to be careful" Mickey answered.

"What for?" Lloyd wondered.

"Some of Churnabog's minions like to hang out in the darker parts of the forest, and the other lands ahead have many creatures that aren't very friendly, so we'll need to be prepared to defend ourselves if we encounter any of them" Mickey explained.

"Pika?" Pikachu exclaimed, looking a bit nervous.

"Don't worry, Pikachu. I won't let any harm come to you" Red assured him.

As the group headed onwards, the forest grew a bit darker as grey clouds began to block out the suns light. Lloyd began to get that feeling in his gut that told him that he and the others were being watched, though he tried to ignore it. Red didn't seem to notice it, and neither did Mickey or Pikachu as they continued on through the forest.

After an hour of treading through tall grass and forest moss, the group came out of the forest and into a wide desert trench that stretched on about half a mile. There were a few large rocks here and there, and even a few dead trees that appeared to have been hit by lightning at one point, but no sign of life.

"This trench doesn't seem too long," Red observed. "I can see trees far down at the end".

"Yes, that leads to Centaur Woods, the land of the centaurs. After we get through there, we'll reach the land of the dinosaurs where the next potion ingredient is" Mickey explained.

"I just hope we don't run into any trouble" Lloyd said, looking around the trench.

"Nor do I" Red agreed.

"Pikachu" Pikachu nodded.

As the group headed through the massive trench, Lloyd couldn't help but wonder what was going on back at Smashopolis. Were the smashers worried about him? Were they trying to locate him and Red as they followed Mickey through the desert? Lloyd wasn't sure if the smashers knew where they were, or what had happened to them, but he was even more worried about what might be happening in Smashopolis.

Since their arrival in Fantasia, Lloyd had been pondering his thoughts on that strange beam of red light that had struck the Transwarp Gate just as he and Red were about to enter it. He found it rather a coincidence that this had happened just several days after the Black Shadow attack on Smashopolis. Not only had the Black Shadow dreadnaught _Thanatos_ been forced to retreat, but they had failed to obtain the sacred items and the Transwarp Gate itself.

This was a major failure for the Black Shadow organization, but Lloyd knew that this didn't mean they had been defeated entirely. They still had many more ships laying in wait out in space, and Lloyd had no doubt that they'd send more of them in to finish what Regina failed to accomplish. This thought made Lloyd even more eager to get back to Smashopolis, but he knew that wasn't possible until the ingredients for that magic teleportation potion were found.

He was also still thinking about his own home and universe this whole time, wondering if it would ever be possible to return there after fixing the _Daphne._ Lloyd wasn't sure though if he'd want to return to his own universe since the rest of the USF was still back on planet Genesis, or at least he hoped they were. Had they been wiped out by the other Black Shadow forces? Or were they recovering from the attack on the planet by the Black Shadow organization?

Lloyd doubted that they'd even considered him to still be alive after being stranded out in that asteroid field for several days while being so far from Genesis. After all, his ships SOS transmitter had been damaged which meant that there had been no way for USF to locate him. It had been a miracle that the transmitter had just enough power to send a signal strong enough to reach Smashopolis where Samus and the Starfox team eventually picked it up and came out to locate him.

Lloyd also worried that the Black Shadow might have sent additional ships to finish off what was left of planet Genesis, and if that happened, that meant Lloyd was the last of the USF soldiers in this alternate universe. The thought of the possibility of planet Genesis being completely destroyed by the Black Shadow was horrible, and not a thought that Lloyd wanted to dwell on, yet he knew that he'd have to plan for the worst if it ever came to that.

"Hey look, I see something moving over there" Red pointing at a large rock ahead of them where Lloyd noticed a shadow behind it.

"Pika!" Pikachu exclaimed and rushed up towards the stone harboring the shadow.

"Pikachu, what are you doing? Get back here" Red commanded firmly.

"Pika, pika!" Pikachu shook his paws as if beckoning the group over to him.

"It looks like Pikachu found something" Mickey said, hurrying over to the rock.

Once Lloyd, Mickey, and Red reached the rock, they found what looked like an injured baby dinosaur about the size of a motorcycle resting near it.

"No way, is this what I think it is?" Lloyd exclaimed in awe at the sight of a creature that had been extinct in his own universe for millions of years.

"Yeah, it's a stegosaurus," Mickey said, kneeling in front of it. "He must have wondered away from his parents, cause he's quite far from home".

"He looks like he's been hurt," Red pointed at a the dinosaurs back left leg which had a long scratch on it. "I wonder what happened to him".

"He must have been attacked by another dinosaur or some wild animal. This wound looks like it was made by an animal with claws or talons, and there's dried blood on his tail spikes, so I'm guessing this little dinosaur was trying to defend itself from whatever was attacking him" Lloyd said, checking the dinosaurs wounded leg.

Lloyd reached out to touch the small dinosaur who reeled back, growling defensively and flashing blood into the fins on his back which gave them an intimidating look. It was clear that this creature had never been close to humans before, and it had been attacked by another wild animal, so Lloyd wasn't too surprised that the stegosaurus would act this way.

"Careful Lloyd, he looks like he's pretty upset and shaken up. I'll try and show him we're not going to hurt him" Mickey said, trying to show the baby dinosaur that they were friendly.

The stegosaurus was a bit hesitant at first, but when he saw that Mickey was only trying to help him, he calmed down and nestled his head against the mouse's gloved hand. His fins returned to their normal state as Mickey gently stroked the dinosaurs head in a comforting manner.

"Looks like he likes you, Mickey" Red commented.

"Pika" Pikachu said happily.

"We should try and fix his leg up so the wound won't get infected. If that happens, he could die from it" Lloyd suggested.

"I know a healing spell Yensid taught me that might work," Mickey said, examining the wound on the dinosaurs leg. "Lets have a look at this".

Mickey examined the cut on the small stegosaurus and then held his hands above it and murmured a magic spell which made the dinosaurs leg glow white. The wound sealed itself up and the dried blood vanished slowly, then the young stegosaurus let out a happy grunt and jumped up and down joyfully.

"Looks like my healing spell worked. He's as good as new" Mickey said, gazing down at the happy dinosaur.

"This is amazing," Lloyd exclaimed, petting the dinosaur. "I never thought I'd see a live dinosaur up close in my life. These things don't even exist in my reality anymore".

"You'll be surprised at what you see in each different realm. There are many creatures in various realms that would only exist in fantasy in your own universe, including extinct animals like dinosaurs" Red said as the dinosaur turned and headed down the long desert path.

"Pika, Pikachu" Pikachu called out to him.

The stegosaurus stopped running and then turned towards the group, making jesters with his head as if beckoning them to follow him.

"Hey look, I think he wants us to follow him" Lloyd pointed out and quickly began following the stegosaurus with Mickey, Red, and Pikachu following behind him.

"Lloyd, slow down" Mickey called out, trying to keep up with him.

The stegosaurus slowed down a bit when he noticed the group lagging behind, allowing them to catch up. Once they met back up with the dinosaur, Mickey asked him if he knew a quicker way to get to the land of the dinosaurs. The stegosaurus nodded and pointed his tail to the trees leading to the centaur woods, then headed towards it.

"This must be the centaur woods he's going through. Maybe it's a shortcut to his homeland" Red speculated.

"Lets follow him" Mickey said, following the little dinosaur into the woods with Red, Lloyd, and Pikachu behind him.

As the dinosaur lead them through the dim forest, Lloyd kept his eyes open for any suspicious creatures that might lurking within the forest. All he had as a means of defense was the sword given to him by Yensid the wizard, so Lloyd knew he'd have to watch out if he came in contact with dangerous foe. All his other weapons were back at Smashopolis in the other realm, so he'd have to rely on only his sword and physical strength to fight if it came down to it.

Lloyd was very strong and muscular since he was a space marine and was professionally trained in hand in hand combat, and his muscles were genetically enhanced by a special genetic enhancement serum that he and the other space marines had been given after joining the space marine corps. Because of this, Lloyd was much stronger than the average soldier, strong enough that he could flip an SUV with his bare hands. But even with these enhancements, Lloyd wasn't invincible, so he knew he'd have to be careful if he encountered a dangerous predator.

After a long tread through the woods, they came to a clearing with a small lake in the center where the small dinosaur stopped to drink from it.

"Looks like the little guy was thirsty. That must be why he ran ahead of us" Red realized.

"Pika, pika" Pikachu said, walking up to the lake to drink from it as well.

"It seems that Pikachu is thirsty too from all that walking" Lloyd inquired.

"Yeah, and I'm a bit tired myself, so let's rest up here a bit" Mickey suggested.

"Sounds good to me" Red agreed.

...

...

"Wha-?! What do you all want?! I'm busy with my evil genius work" Dr. Eggman snapped as he opened the door to his lair.

"Well, you know that dimensional shifting device you built to send Chris Thorndike back to his realm a few years ago?" Sonic hinted.

"Yeah, what about it?" Eggman retorted.

"We need it to get to Smashopolis, cause the Transwarp Gate won't open to there for some reason" Sonic answered.

"Humph! Not my problem, so get lost" Eggman muttered.

"Believe it or not Eggman, it _will_ be your problem and everyone else's problem if you don't let us use that device to get to Smashopolis" Knuckles snapped.

"What are you talking about?" Eggman questioned.

Knuckles explained to Eggman what he saw in the vision of the Master Emerald, such as the attacks on the other realms and the loss of innocent lives, hoping that Eggman would reconsider his choice.

"Hmm, that sounds pretty serious indeed," Eggman said, seeming a bit concerned now. "And just why is it that the Transwarp Gate isn't working?".

"It _does_ work," Knuckles corrected him. "But Smashopolis is the only realm that it won't open a portal to, and so we need that device of yours to get there and inform Master Hand of the Master Emerald's vision before it's too late".

"Please Eggman! We really need that device" Cream begged in her cute voice.

"Yeah, this is serious business" Tails added.

Eggman pondered his thoughts for a bit as he processed everything that Sonic and Knuckles had just told him. He didn't know whether or not this was a prank, but he couldn't understand why Sonic and Knuckles would have any need to lie to him if what they said was that serious.

Eggman could care less about the Transwarp Gate and about what Knuckles told him about the vision from the Master Emerald, but he couldn't help but feel slightly unnerved by it. The idea of a space pirate fleet invading other realms and exterminating innocent lives was very unsettling to say the least, and even Dr. Eggman wasn't so twisted or cruel as to let a thing like that happen to his own world.

"Hmm, maybe I might let you guys use it if you show me some proof that what you said was true" Eggman finally said in a suspicious tone.

"What?! You implying that me and Sonic are lying?!" Knuckles snapped angrily, approaching him with his fists clenched.

"Now now, I didn't say that," Eggman said, shaking his hands defensively. "I just meant that I want to inspect the Transwarp Gate to see what the problem is".

"Seems fair enough" Sonic said.

"Humph, fine! But you'd better not try anything funny, Eggman" Knuckles replied coldly.

"Not even considering it" Eggman said innocently, secretly crossing his fingers behind his back and struggling not to force an evil smile on his face.

* * *

 **A/N: Uh oh, looks like Dr. Eggman has a prank up his sleeve like he always does. What might that prank be? And just what will become of Lloyd and his friends?** **You'll find out soon enough in the next chapter, coming soon.**


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